Halcyon Holidays
by Storygazer
Summary: RWBY and every other main character enjoy the holidays together...or do they? Main characters only (although one or two OC's might come up). Holiday: New Years festival with Team JNPR and a very angry Grimm
1. Grateful to be Together

Grateful to be Together

(**Disclaimer**: Monty Oum and Roosterteeth own everything in RWBY that is on here. I only own the plot involving such elements.)

A/N: Shortly takes place after the last episode for Volume 1. I know it's early, but it's nice to have a story like this for the holiday.

* * *

"Blaaaake. Blake, where are you?"

Yang walked around the halls of Beacon Academy in her casual wear while looking for her mysterious friend. Well, she's not so mysterious ever since she revealed that she was a Faunus. The cute cat ears were proof enough.

Still, getting to know her better didn't help Yang find her ever-elusive friend. Yang started to jog fast when she realized how much time has passed since she started her task.

While she and the rest of the gang were waiting in the dining hall for the Thanksgiving feast to be brought out, they saw that Blake wasn't anywhere to be found. Volunteering to go find her, Yang ran off and has been looking for the past couple of minutes.

"_Great, right before we eat, Blake goes off and disappears. This is our first Thanksgiving together and she just decides that she doesn't want to be there?! If I can't find her soon, then she might as well-."_

Yang's thought never finished when she passed by a window and saw Blake standing on a nearby roof. With her target in sight, Yang ran to the rooftop's entrance and tackled through the closed door.

Blake turned around, startled, as she got out of her daze from looking at the starry sky above. While Yang was panting with hands on her knees, Blake asked, "Did you just run through a door when you could have opened it like a normal person?"

Ignoring the silly question, Yang got up and said, "What are you doing here, Blake? Team RWBY is going to have their first ever Thanksgiving together! And when I say team, I mean all of us, including you. C'mon, let's go before Ruby starves to death and I miss getting a piece of that juicy roast beef."

Yang turned around and started to march back to the dining hall while congratulating herself for her successful mission.

"I'm not going. You guys can eat without me."

Turning around in surprise, Yang saw that Blake looked back up at the sky with her back turned to her. Unwilling to go back without her objective, Yang crossed her arms and asked, "And why is that? I'm sure they're serving something fish-related tonight. You should definitely have the stomach for that."

With back still turned to Yang, Blake said, "No, I'm just not hungry; I'll be fine. And I already heard that the Bullhead delivering the seafood supplies was stolen, so fish shouldn't be on the menu tonight."

Yang slightly flinched as she lost one way to bring Blake back with her. Deciding to go with a more direct approach, she asked, "Is everything alright? I know the food can't be the only thing stopping you from eating with us. Heck, we've been eating together ever since we became a team."

After several seconds of silence, Blake slowly turned to face Yang. As Yang got a view of Blake's face, she saw that she had on the same sad expression that she had right during her argument with Weiss and right before she went missing for a weekend.

"Look, I said I'm fine. I just…want to be alone for today. When you go back, please tell Ruby, Weiss, and everybody else that I'm sorry I couldn't make it. I hope you understand."

With this said, Blake tried to walk right past Yang to head to the door. Right as she passed Yang, she felt a hand grab her arm and stop her from walking any further.

While Blake tried to pull free from the strong grip, Yang said, "No, I don't understand. Blake, I thought we were done with this. Keeping us in the dark will only make it as bad as the last time."

Blake stopped as she heard this with her arm going limp as Yang finished with, "Talk to me, let me know what's keeping you from having a nice meal and feeling thankful with us."

When Yang felt that Blake stopped trying to walk away from her hold, she released it. As Blake regained her composure, she lightly adjusted the bow that she kept on the top of her head.

"Thankful? I'm not too sure about that. In fact, I can't even remember when I've ever been thankful for anything on this day."

Yang realized that after hearing some bitterness in Blake's voice, she had to tread lightly in this conversation.

"Um, okay. Care to explain what you mean by that?"

As Blake tried to find the words to express her thoughts, she turned her head and gazed in the direction of where the school's statue was at.

"Do you remember when I talked about my childhood? How I had to deal with the Faunus discrimination? That experience didn't stop during most of the holidays. In fact, guess which day was the worst out of all of them?"

Yang's eyes slowly widened in surprise from hearing this and grew much wider as Blake continued.

"Thanksgiving was considered the worst kind of holiday for my kind. It was a day when people thought it would be fun to hunt Faunus like they were wild animals. When captured, they would be shoved into cages and sacks before being released back where they were found at. The most terrifying parts were when some didn't return. Even I-."

Blake stopped right before she revealed any more than she intended to say. Deciding that she said enough about that part of her story, she thought back on the Thanksgivings in her later years.

"The hunts were later outlawed because others eventually realized how cruel the sport was, especially for those who couldn't defend themselves. However, that didn't make Thanksgiving any better."

"As I got older and became more involved with the White Fang's activities, I always had to go out on this day with my brothers to do crowd and damage control just to keep our kin safe. The new leader only made things worse when violence became allowed."

Turning back to face Yang, Blake said, "So there you have it. There was no time or reason to give thanks, only struggle in those harsh days. Celebrating this day doesn't suit me, so I want to be alone, at least until tomorrow."

Blake let out a long soft sigh as she finished speaking. When she looked at Yang, she saw that the brawler was trying to say something, only to stop after opening and closing her mouth several times.

Seeing that she explained enough to excuse herself, Blake walked back to the rooftop entrance to retreat to another location.

Saddened to see her friend leave, Yang asked, "Blake, do you hate Thanksgiving?"

Before Blake turned around the corner of the entrance, she looked back at Yang and said, "Hate? No, I don't hate that it was a holiday made to express thanks for the good things you have. What I do hate is the irony of how people like me can't find a reason to do so."

As Blake disappeared around the corner, Yang looked sadly at where Blake was at before she started her own trek back to the dining room.

* * *

"Okay, okay. Now, use his fist to hit himself in the groin. That'll teach him to mess with people like that!"

Pyrrha giggled at Nora's suggestion as she slowly raised her glowing hand over the edge of the table top. Slightly moving her fingers up and down, Pyrrha used her magnetism to make a confused Cardin raise his armored arm into the air before swiftly slamming it into his groin.

Team Ruby and JNPR, sitting at a table, tried to stifle their laughter while everybody else laughed loudly at the sight. One person even yelled, "What's wrong Cardin? Does 'alone time' just not cut it out for you anymore?"

As Ruby let out her stifling laughter, she saw Yang come up and take a seat next to her. Seeing that Blake wasn't with her, Ruby worriedly asked, "Hey, didn't you say you were going to bring Blake back?"

Yang shook her head as she said, "I'll tell you later. But what's going on with Cardin? Is he just hitting himself because he's an idiot or a glutton for attention?"

While Pyrrha kept moving her fingers to make Cardin float up in the air before slamming his body down into a plate of food, Weiss kept laughing as she said, "No, he was just being a jerk as usual. He caused a commotion among the Faunus students when he carried a sack around and threatened to shove them into it."

Softly cheering at the sight of Cardin's body getting dragged into his sack, Weiss finished with, "We got sick of it, so Pyrrha is just being a dear and giving him the retribution he rightfully deserves."

Pyrrha lowered her hand after seeing that she has done enough damage. Looking at Yang, she said, "Well, I was kind of against it at first. But after we saw him make Velvet faint, I decided that he deserved it. It turned out more fun than expected. Right, Jaune?"

Jaune turned to Pyrrha with a worried look and said, "Please don't ask. I don't want to be reminded of what you can do with that power during practice. And yes, I'll be up early tomorrow to do some morning training. I haven't forgotten."

Pyrrha smiled from hearing this and was about to eat the food in front of her when she heard a voice say, "Miss Nikos, a moment please. You might need to explain how Mister Winchester displayed one of his acts of inappropriate behavior while floating in mid-air."

Pyrrha got up with a worried look as she saw Professor Goodwitch come up behind the sack Cardin was in. Jaune rose up with her and looked at Ren and Nora who were still eating the food from their plates.

"We should all go. She might not have known what he was doing, so it'll be better if we explain it as a team."

Pyrrha felt grateful from hearing Jaune's suggestion and seeing her teammates nod their heads in agreement multiplied the said feeling. After Nora and Ren stood up, they all started to walk towards Professor Goodwitch.

"Thanks guys; I appreciate the support."

As Team JNPR walked off, Weiss looked at Cardin in disgust as she said, "Can you believe it? I know that the man hates Faunus, but to bring the same object used for those dreaded Faunus hunts? Despicable."

Ruby looked at Weiss in confusion, confused at her remark about the sack.

"Equipment? Faunus hunts? I thought he had the sack because he wanted to gather enough food for later and build up some fat for his butt. We've been kicking it during simulation training for a while, and we're set-up to fight his team again tomorrow."

Weiss slightly smiled from Ruby's remark about the sack shortly before replacing it with a frown.

"No, you dunce. Those sacks were part of a cruel game that involved hunting Faunus on Thanksgiving. Whatever, Yang, can you explain it to her? I'm sure you can do a better job than I can."

Yang didn't reply as she continued to pick at her food instead of eating it.

"Yang, what's wrong? Did something happen between you and Blake?"

Yang looked up to see Ruby's concerned face aimed straight at her. Before she could reply, she heard Weiss say, "Yeah, where is she? We're still waiting and I'm starving! Having this good food in front of us isn't helping either!"

Yang looked down at the plates of food in front of them and realized that Ruby and Weiss haven't touched them, evident that they were waiting for Blake to come join them. Knowing that it's time for an explanation, Yang sighed as she prepared to repeat everything Blake had told her.

"Well, okay. Here's the thing. See, Blake had a tough time with Thanksgiving when she was a kid and-."

* * *

Blake sat on the edge of a large window as she watched the lights of the dining hall shining in the middle of the night. Kind of wishing that she was there to hang out with her friends, Blake banished the notion when the memories of her past came back to haunt her again.

"Soo, is there a reason why you're still here? If I were you, I would be having some chow by now."

Blake turned and saw Sun, her new Faunus friend, lean against the doorway with a wide smile on his face. Although she was glad to see him, Blake didn't take comfort from one thing wrong with this picture.

"Sun? What are you doing here? You're not allowed to be on the campus unless you're a student."

Sun used his tail to grab the ledge above the door and hang upside as he took out a banana and peeeld it.

"Got curious when I heard some folks say that the Thanksgiving here isn't as bad as the ones we're used to. I thought I would check it out and maybe enjoy it with you guys. It must be pretty bad if you're not spending time with them."

Blake got up from her spot and sat down on a nearby chair while Sun lightly swung in and out of the doorway.

"No, it's actually pretty nice, even entirely different from what I'm used to back home. Faunus eating together with their fellow mankind? If you haven't seen it, then it might sound too good to be true."

As Sun dropped back down to the floor and onto his feet, he asked, "If it's good as you say it is, then why are you here alone and not over there with them?"

Looking at the dining hall that Sun was pointing at, Blake paused for a moment before looking back at Sun, who held his curious gaze at her.

"I just don't like Thanksgiving. Spending time with the White Fang didn't help with my bad experiences, and I didn't want to ruin their day with my attitude."

Sun got a confused look on his face while asking, "Well, why not make new memories to replace the old ones? You said it yourself; you're no longer involved with the White Fang. There's no need to worry about the past, is there?"

Blake sighed as she saw that she's going to have to explain her disposition again to another curious friend.

"It's not that easy, Sun. After spending many years dealing with issues on this holiday, I don't even know how to enjoy it. It's just…it's just hard to get into a good mood about it."

Closing her eyes and placing an arm across her forehead, Blake finished with, "When I think about the point of this holiday, I'm not even sure if there I'm ever going to feel gratitude aside from the fact that I lived through all of these bad experiences."

Blake didn't hear Sun say anything after she her last remark. After several seconds, Blake was about to say something when she heard Sun reply, "I can't believe that."

Opening her eyes, Blake saw Sun finish eating his banana and throw it into a nearby trash can. He turned around and looked at her with a smile.

"Well, it might not be easy, but there's got to be something that you can feel good about in your life. Take me for example; I just got a day's worth of seafood and bananas thanks to the ride that I hijacked on the way here. That's one good thing for me today."

Blake raised her eyebrow at this and found that Sun's statement seems to contradict with his point.

"Doing a crime is supposed to be something to feel good about doing? What would people think if they knew you did something like that?"

Sun laughed at this while he took out one of his weapons and started to spin it in the air.

"I'm free to do whatever I want and not give a monkey's butt about what other people think. But that's not the point I'm making that you're trying to avoid, right?"

Before Blake could answer, Sun looked at the top of Blake's head and asked, "By the way, you still have that bow on? Why would you want it there when people already know that you're a Faunus?"

Blake sadly wiggled her ears as the question brought up a reminder of its existence.

"They don't; only you, Penny and my team members who I am so far. I'm not sure if most people will tolerate it if they find out, so I don't want my friends to get hurt because of me. I'll find a way to ease it in, but…now isn't a good time."

Sun suddenly clapped his hands from hearing this as he said, "There we go; one reason to give thanks just got marked on the board."

Blake was confused at first before she became irritated and her eyebrows furrowed together from the emotion.

"Keeping my identity a secret is a good thing? How can that be something good when I'm…doing it….for my friends?"

Blake slowly understood what Sun was trying to say and became speechless as she realized that Thanksgiving did hold some meaning for her after all.

"Ah ha, see? You didn't keep the bow there and cover up your identity for yourself. You're doing it to protect your friends. And going this far because of your concern shows how much you like them, right?"

Blake stared at Sun as she was slightly shocked by this revelation. Struggling with thoughts of how ridiculous this sounded, Blake eventually gave up and realized that Sun had a point there.

Sighing, Blake said, "Okay, I admit that one thing out of everything else can be considered something good to have. But it's only one thing."

Sun laughed at this and said, "And it's that one thing that you found on Thanksgiving, you know, the day you're supposed to reflect on the things you have and feel good about it?"

As she heard this, Blake found that she couldn't disagree with what he said. Suddenly, Sun's stomach started to growl, showing that the banana earlier wasn't enough for his hunger.

Heading back towards the doorway, Sun said, "That's my cue to leave for some chow. Are you sure you still don't want to go?"

Blake thought about it for a moment before she shook her head as she said, "No, it's already late, and I'm still not warm to the idea of celebrating this holiday. But thanks Sun; it's nice of you to go this far just to make today a special day for me as well."

As Sun heard this, he raised up two fingers and said, "That's two marks, Blake. Keep it up, and you'll find that it can top most people who didn't have it as hard as us."

"Well, I'm going to see if I can nab some of the food before everybody finishes up. But think about it; if you have some good friends, then they might even be waiting for you down there. Anyways, I'll see you later."

After Sun went out to head to the dining hall, Blake turned her attention back to the bright dining hall.

"_Even if we're friends, they wouldn't wait this long for me…right?"_

* * *

As the number of residents in the dining hall started to decrease, Ruby and Weiss stared at Yang with wide eyes in surprise as she finished explaining Blake's story to them.

"So she never had a Thanksgiving where she can eat and hang out with friends like this? Like,ever?" asked Ruby, who still had a hard time believing what she heard.

Nodding her head, Yang said, "Yeah, the treatment of Faunus was always bad, but I didn't know that Blake had to put up with the worst of it on this holiday."

Weiss crossed her arms from hearing this as her eyebrows were furrowed in anger.

"It's not bad, it's terrible! She should not have to experience such a disgusting ritual! Okay, my parents and theirs might have participated once or twice, but I still think it's terrible."

Right after Weiss said this, she, along with Weiss and Ruby, looked at each other, concerned for the friend who wasn't there to have a good time because it was a dreadful day for her.

"Well, glad to hear that all of you are really her friends, but I'm not too comfortable about your parents, princess. By the way, do you mind passing the pepper?"

Picking up the pepper shaker, Weiss turned to the person munching beside her and said, "Of course we're her friends. And here, take…Sun?! What are you doing here?!"

Ruby and Yang turned their heads to where Weiss was looking at and also became surprised when they saw Sun sitting there while eating the food from his plate.

As he slurped up some mashed potatoes, he said, "Thanks. And this stuff is good, why aren't you all having any of this?"

Looking back at where Professor Goodwitch was still talking to Team JNPR and Cardin, Ruby became concerned at what the Huntress would think if she saw Sun here.

"Sun, you're not supposed to be here, get out before Professor Goodwitch sees you!"

Sun continued to eat his food as he said, "Naw, I'll be fine. Besides, I might as well look like a student here; there's no need to be concerned at all."

Yang looked at Sun with a raised eyebrow as she said, "Uh, I don't know about that. Most of us don't have tails like you do. She also has a scroll with a list of students on it, so she can check on you if she gets suspicious enough."

Sun immediately stopped eating after hearing this. Looking at the food in horror, he started to shove most of the contents with his hands into his mouth, trying to finish before he gets noticed.

"Sowee, Ie leaf af soo oaf I dofe (Sorry, I'll leave as soon as I'm done.)"

"Eww, Sun! Stop talking; food is coming out of your mouth! Gross, use your utensils, not your hands!"

While the girls, mostly Weiss, were dealing with Sun's messy way of eating, Cardin broke off from his conversation with Professor Goodwitch and Team JNPR. His nostrils flared, angry from losing the argument against Team JNPR regarding his earlier actions.

"You know what, forget this! You can take the sack for all I care and stand up for those freaks! I'm heading back to my room."

As Cardin passed by Velvet who was bringing over a plate of vegetables back to her seat, Cardin suddenly thought of getting away with one more devious act before his departure.

"Hey, bunny girl! You got lucky today, but you better watch out! You might find yourself in a cage with your name on it when you wake up tomorrow!"

When he saw the desired look of fear from her, Cardin shouldered through Velvet as he passed her, making her fall to the ground.

Sun saw this, got out of his seat, and whipped out his hand to catch her before she hit the ground. The feeling of warm hands around her body instead of the cold ground made Velvet reopen her eyes, only to stare into Sun's blue ones as they looked down at her.

"Whoa, you okay?"

Velvet looked up as she shakily said, "Um, yeah. Thanks for your help."

As Sun helped her back up, Cardin, who watched the whole scene, said, "Hah, a freak helping another freak. It always does take more than one of you to do anything useful."

Sun glared at Cardin who turned around and left. Before Cardin could walk any further, Sun sneaked his tail around both of Cardin's feet and pulled it right as Cardin was about to take another step.

"Wh-what? Hey!"

Cardin tripped as his feet became tied up and landed his head on top of a plate of coleslaw. The force of the blow made Cardin unconscious, his body unmoving as his face was in a pile of white mayonnaise and pieces of lettuce.

Sun smiled at the result while Team RWBY watched in slight amusement by the whole scene.

"Excuse me, but violence is not allowed in the dining hall. And are you a student here?! I don't remember seeing you on the list!"

Everybody looked at the source of the angry voice and saw Professor Goodwitch approach them with Team JNPR tagging along behind her. Sun just remembered that he wasn't supposed to be there, so he turned around to make his exit.

"Whoops, got to run! I'll smell y'all later!"

With that, Sun dashed off, leaving everybody but Team RWBY baffled by the unfamiliar sight of the young Faunus.

Sighing, Professor Goodwitch took out her scroll and typed some of the buttons on it. When the scroll brought up a screen, Professor Goodwitch said, "Please send one of the medical personnel to pick up Mister Winchester…again. You'll need a stretcher and a bag of ice; he's unconscious on one of the tables in the dining hall."

Professor Goodwitch walked off after turning off her scroll while Velvet, who was watching Sun, went back to her seat. Team JNPR sat back in their original spots alongside Team RWBY while watching the medical staff come by to pick up Cardin's body.

"So, who was monkey boy? He seemed kind of funny," said Nora as she took her seat next to Ren again.

"Oh, he's just someone we know. The same guy who helped out with the whole White Fang fiasco."

While Weiss talked to Team JNPR, Ruby turned to Yang and asked, "So don't you want to do something about Blake? It's not really much of a holiday without our friend."

Yang flung her hair to side as she thought about it before saying, "I'd like to, but she doesn't want to hang out because she's uncomfortable with Thanksgiving. And even if she does change her mind, the place is going to be cleaned up soon; there's going to be nothing left for her to come."

Ruby pondered about this dilemma. After several seconds of brainstorming, she excitedly looked at Yang with fiery determination in her eyes.

"Yang, go find Sun and ask him to meet up at the lobby! I'll see you there with everyone else; I've got a plan."

Before Yang could ask what she had in mind, Ruby immediately turned around to talk to Weiss and Team JNPR. After several minutes of talking with some words of disagreement from Weiss, Yang saw that everybody's heads nodded before they got up and went in different directions.

Yang grabbed Ruby by the shoulder and said, "Sis, I know what you're up to, and I need to ask if you know what you're doing. Do you even know how you're going to deal with Blake?"

Ruby gave a confident smile as she said, "I don't really know if she wants to celebrate with us, but she's going to be hungry sooner or later. The least we can do is to provide her something to eat as her friends."

Yang let out a smile as Ruby ran off, proud to see that her kind sister would go this far for a friend. Deciding to just go with the flow, Yang got up and prepared to go catch up with the troublemaking Faunus.

* * *

Blake let out a groan as her stomach growled for the fifth time tonight. Sitting up on her bed, Blake laid a hand on her stomach as it continued to protest her unwillingness to eat until later.

"_Not now. Can't you wait until tomorrow morning?"_

Her stomach replied by letting out a growl so loud that it filled up the whole room with its noise. Thankfully, her teammates weren't here to hear this disturbing noise, even if it was already past ten.

"_Wasn't the feast supposed to be over a couple of hours ago? Where else would they be at this hour?"_

Blake got her answer when Yang popped her head into the room. Holding the door open with one hand, Yang waved at Blake with a smile as she said, "Hey grumpy. You ready to eat?"

Blake got confused from the statement as she asked, "Eat? Isn't all of the food gone by now? And I told you already, I'm not in the mood to eat today."

In the worst timing possible, Blake's stomach decided to let out a loud growl, making both Blake's and Yang's eyes grow wide from the loud noise. Yang decided that the noise was proof enough and walked over to grab Blake's arm.

"C'mon, we've been waiting for you. And if Ruby and Weiss heard that noise, there's no way they'll let you wait until tomorrow morning."

Even if this was true, Blake didn't see it as a reason to leave. Before she could protest, she suddenly remembered what Sun to her.

"_If you have some good friends, they might even be waiting for you."_

That thought alone made Blake realize that maybe that's what's been happening. Maybe they've been waiting for her and Yang was sent so they can finally eat.

It's because of this possibility why Blake decided to let Yang drag her out of bed and lead her down the hall. Since her friends should be starving by now, she should at least show up and make sure that everything is okay.

"_And maybe get a quick bit to eat just to stop my stomach from growling like this."_

Yang smiled when she turned and looked at Blake's face. She then started to laugh and say, "Oh, wipe that frown off your face. You're in for a surprise, so might as well have the smile for it."

When they made it to the dining hall, Blake looked around the dimly lit room. All of the tables looked empty, save for two surrounded by people, most she recognized to be her teammates and Team JNPR.

Blake wasn't too surprised because of what Yang told her, even as she saw Ruby come over while hiding something behind her back.

"Uh, hey Blake. Surprise… kind of. It might not be close enough to what we had, but we wanted to wait for you so we can eat together."

When Blake looked over Ruby's shoulder, she looked closer and saw that one was arranged in a buffet style while the other one was empty, probably used for where everybody was going to eat on. The most surprising thing about the sight was that all of the food were still steaming, clearly baked fresh out of the oven.

"Wait a minute, the kitchen was for only the staff. How could you have prepared all of this without getting into trouble?"

Ruby used one finger from her raised hand while smiling and said, "Well, we asked Professor Goodwitch, then we asked the kitchen staff. One thing led to another before we all got this ready for you. Things just worked out in the end."

Blake felt astonished from hearing that everybody got all of this ready for her, fresh out of the oven. However, Blake felt guilty as she realized that they all had to go through this trouble just to wait for her in the end. With this guilt in mind, Blake unconsciously raised one hand to grab her other arm to release some tension from her mind.

"Is it alright for you to say that all of this is for me? I didn't even bother coming when I was invited; all of you have the right to have this for yourselves."

"You're right. We might as well have eaten together and leave you alone somewhere to starve to death. I wouldn't have cared if you had gone through harsh times before; do you know how many people are starving out there today?!"

Weiss came up to the group and placed her hands on her hips as she finished speaking her mind. Blake was about to say an apology when Weiss picked up one of Blake's hands with both of her own.

"But we're your teammates; we're the people who have some kind of relationship with you, despite however bad or good it is. And even the details don't matter because we care about everything that happened to you yesterday and today."

Yang nodded happily at this and swung her arm around Blake's shoulders and gave it a small squeeze.

"Yep, you're stuck with us, and whatever we do together will always involve you. That's why we're going to eat together, just as we planned it for this entire day."

Blake looked at Yang and Weiss as she felt mixed feelings about what her friends have just told her. After several seconds, she saw that Ruby reached into her pocket and took out a small circular can. Handing it to Blake, Ruby said, "I asked the kitchen staff if they had something you would like, and I got this."

Blake took the can and saw that it was a can of tuna. This left Blake speechless, which left her only looking up and down at both the can and Ruby.

"Blake, I know that today hasn't been the best days for you, but you don't have to always make this day a bad day. That's why you have friends who can help you make it better."

"Every day should be filled with the things you cherish or look forward to be a part of. At least, that's how I want to spend today with you and everybody else. Not just as a team, but as friends, okay?"

Right as she finished, Ruby let out a gentle smile and Blake saw that Ruby meant it from the bottom of her heart. Trying not to get teary-eyed from everything that her friends have given her, Blake also smiled and said, "Sure, thank you all for this, and happy Thanksgiving. Let's finish it by eating together."

Ruby and Yang's smiles have gotten wider while Weiss seemed to have let out a breath of relief. As Weiss and Ruby walked off to go to the tables to eat, Blake tried to follow when she felt Yang yank her ribbon off her head.

"Yoink, can't have this on when we know who you are now. Just relax and be yourself around us."

Blake turned and tried to grab her ribbon back from Yang, who was holding the accessory high above her head.

"And hey, if anybody has an issue with it, then we'll also deal with that together. Didn't Ruby's sappy speech just teach you that?"

Blake was able to snatch her ribbon from Yang's hands. Before Yang tried to take it back, she stopped after she saw Blake place it in her pocket.

"I'll leave that up for later decision. I'm not really ready to part from this ribbon yet. But…I know now that I can count on all of you, so believe me when I say this, okay?"

Happy to hear this, Yang nodded and ran over to get a place in line with everybody else over there. Blake followed and was able to get a place in the line between Ruby and Nora.

Everybody started to line up at the tables to get the food. As Nora got behind Blake, she touched her ears as she exclaimed, "Wow, so cute! I never knew you would look so much better with kitty ears!"

Blake tried to get away from Nora's touch as she said, "W-wait! Quit it; that really tickles!"

Ruby turned around and also raised her hands up to touch the ears. Blake squeaked from the contact and jumped away as Ruby let out a sigh of satisfaction from the soft feeling on her fingers.

"Aww, that feels so nice. Your fur is really soft, did you know that?"

While Nora and Ruby tried to keep touching the ears despite Blake's protests, Yang decided that it was time to move on. Moving out of her place in line, she went over to pull the two hyperactive characters away from Blake.

"Okay, settle down you two. I'm sure Blake is as hungry as the rest of us, so we should let her eat."

As Ruby was released from her sister's grasp, she looked around and asked, "Hey, where's Sun? He was here before you brought Blake, wasn't he?"

On cue, a large crash was heard outside. When everybody turned to look at where the noise came from, they saw the outside entrance doors open to reveal Sun carrying a large box in both of his hands.

"Hey guys, I thought we could have a little more something to eat, so I brought my share for today. Help yourself, cause even I can't eat all of this in one day."

Sun placed the box on the ground and opened the lid. When the lid came off, everybody saw that there were bunches of bananas on one side of the box. Separated by a wall, there were small decorated containers full of…

"Fiiiiiiish!"

Sun took one of the containers out and threw the object straight at Blake. After catching the box, Blake took a look inside and saw that it was too delicious to be just any kind of fish.

"_Delicious enough to be something that everybody should have eaten today. Oh Sun, did you really bring everything you have just to share something with us?"_

As Sun set the last box down, he looked at everybody and said, "Well, I did my part. I might as well get out of here before that scary lady comes back. I'll see you guys around and maybe leave a small plate for me to get later.

Right as Sun turned to leave, Ruby loudly said, "Wait, aren't you going to stay? We didn't ask you to bring all of the food you had. We wanted you to join us because you're Blake's friend, aren't you?"

Sun's tail rose in the air from hearing this surprising statement and slowly turned his head to look at Ruby.

"Really? But, I'm not a student and I'm the guy who stole your stuff in the first place. Is it really okay to have a dirty Faunus like me here?"

Blake threw the container back at Sun. When Sun caught and looked at it before looking up, he saw that Blake was smiling at him.

"I don't see a problem. We're all friends here, so stay and at least eat enough where you won't have to steal again for a while."

Sun's baffled look changed into one of happiness. After opening the container in his hand, he walked over to Blake as he took out and ate the piece of sushi in his fingers.

Looking at Ruby and Blake, he said, "Well, alright then. And thanks to the both of you; it is nice to have something good with you weirdos."

After Sun looked away, Ruby didn't know how to exactly think about him calling her a 'weirdo.' Blake, however, smiled at this as she understood that it was Sun's way of differentiating every non-Faunus here from the people who would treat them in a worse manner.

* * *

When everybody was sitting on the empty table and eating their food, Blake happily munched on her salmon, happy to finally rid her stomach of its hunger.

"Um, hello. Is there anybody sitting next to you?"

Blake turned and saw Velvet standing behind her with a plate of food in her hands. Surprised to see her there, Blake nodded and scooted over to give Velvet some space for sitting.

Yang, who was sitting across from Blake, saw the confused expression and said, "Eh, we decided to invite her cause Cardin gave her a hard time today. It's great when you can spread the joy with everyone else, don't you think?"

Blake nodded, agreeing that having another person, especially a fellow Faunus, joining them isn't bad. As Velvet settled into her seat, she looked at Blake and tapped her shoulder to get her attention.

"Hello, and ha…ha…, oh um, happy Thanksgiving. Um, it's really nice of all of you to invite me; I never really thought that we can be like this together with everyone else. It's much nicer than being shoved into a sack for the remainder of the day."

Blake saw that her fellow Faunus was also under the influence of the bad tidings that plagued them in the previous Thanksgivings. There is no way that she was going to let that keep going.

"When you're around good people, you never have to go through that again. And this won't be the last time, so enjoy the rest of today and expect next year to be better, okay?"

Velvet smiled from hearing this and nodded before she continued to eat her carrot bits.

"Hmm, that sounds awfully familiar. I wonder what smart guy would come up with those wise words like that."

Sun slammed his plate next to Yang's and jumped onto his spot, which was also across from Velvet's. After landing, Sun was about to dig in when he saw Velvet staring at him.

"Oh, sorry about that loud noise; I just can't wait to eat this awesome looking food. But before I do that, the name's Sun Wukong. What's yours?"

"Ve-Velvet Scarletina. Th-thank you for helping me earlier."

Sun gave Velvet an amusing look as he said, "Oh, the girl who fell earlier, right? Well, always glad to help another Faunus. I just couldn't stand guys like that, how about you?"

"We-well…"

While Sun kept talking to a shy Velvet, Blake looked the two Faunus and the other people talking on the other side of the table.

"So, what's your thoughts on Thanksgiving now? Still have the same opinion about it?"

Blake turned to look at Yang, who looked as if she was anticipating a positive response. Blake inwardly smiled as she thought of the perfect answer to give to her friend/teammate.

"Well, it's still not one of my favorite holidays; who ever heard of a time when friends had to starve with a meal right in front of them?"

Yang groaned, thinking that she and everybody else may not have made much progress with their Faunus friend.

"But all of you did that because you're my friends…so thank you for making me change my mind about today. Making me see that there are things that I can be thankful for today."

Yang's frown shifted to a smile as she heard this. Ready to eat, Yang picked up her fork to take the first bite of roast beef that she has been craving the entire day.

* * *

"So that's where our supplies went. I hope you realize that allowing someone like him on our campus is going to cause many problems in the future."

Standing behind the doors to the dining hall, Ozpin and Goodwitch supervised the scene from afar to make sure that everything is okay.

While keeping an eye on Ruby and Blake, Professor Ozpin said, "Having him along may benefit them in future events since we can't always keep an eye on them. I'm more surprised to see that you allowed the students to have their way in this manner."

Professor Goodwitch adjusted her glasses with one hand while using the other to hold onto the sack that she confiscated from Cardin in the earlier confrontation.

"Well, it is Thanksgiving. I thought it would be…nice if Miss Belladonna could enjoy this day rather than suffer from her past experiences. And seeing as how other Faunus, like Miss Scarletina, is invited makes it even better for everybody's well-being."

Ozpin smiled from hearing this as he watched his continue to eat and laugh together, a sight that truly represents the nature of fellowship found on Thanksgiving. Satisfied to see his students will continue on without trouble, Ozpin turned and started to head back towards his office.

"Although it's ironic how the team leader would say such kind words. If anyone's pain is to be misunderstood, it would be hers as it outweighs what any of her age had and should ever experience."

Confused by this statement, Goodwitch turned to ask Professor Ozpin about it, but she saw that he was already walking away.

Professor Goodwitch decided not to think too much about it and followed Professor Ozpin. As she walked away, laughter filled the air behind her as the students continued to enjoy their Thanksgiving feast together.

**We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures. ~Thornton Wilder**

* * *

A/N:

Wow, that turned out much longer than I expected. The planned 4000 words somehow went past the 6000 mark. It's my fault for wanting to tell a story that needed this many words. *Sigh*

Hopefully, this can help some of you get into the mood to be thankful for what you have, even in the small things. And I'm sorry for the lack of creativity and major corniness, but I just wanted to get the point across for the holiday.

By the way, has Sun x Velvet ever been a consideration? You know, dashing young rogue coming to the rescue of a fellow Faunus in distress? Cliché, yes, but it can fit, right? (Lol, Scarlet Sun pairing.)

The last part of this story involving Professor Ozpin's speech is just my guess at what Ozpin might know about Ruby and interpretation of the newest version of 'Red Like Roses: Part II.' You should listen to it on Youtube; it's pretty good concerning quality and relation to character.

Reference:

-Fiiiiish: One of the common phrases in Roosterteeth's Achievement Hunter staff. Michael is on the team, so guess why it had to be Sun who had to say it?

- Decorated box: I wanted to say bento, but I was kind of worried that most people wouldn't know what they are. They're basically decorated lunch boxes used in Japan.

Review and/ or PM. Hope to know what people think about my first, non-action fic.

Please review and/or PM. Until next time, Happy early Thanksgiving everybody.


	2. The Treasure of Snow

The Treasure of Snow

A/N: And here is Christmas. This time, we look at the precious things that Weiss has lost in her dreaded past (non-canon of course).

(**Disclaimer**: Monty Oum and Roosterteeth owns RWBY while everybody else owns whatever I use as reference. I only own the OC's and unofficial story parts.)

**Every human being must have had something that they cherished**

**Otherwise, how could they have felt like they've lost something in their past?**

* * *

Snow. It was a part of her name. That is what 'Schnee' stands for in German. Weiss hated the name for many reasons, but her situation right now made her hate it more than usual.

"_But why? Why do I feel so much hatred for it now than ever before?"_

As this question plagued her mind, Weiss looked around to see snow everywhere fall from the dark sky and onto ground that she was standing on. Strangely, nothing felt cold, even as the snowflakes fell onto her skin. The only place where Weiss could feel cold was inside her heart.

Trying to ignore the chill in her chest, Weiss walked down one direction of the snowy plain, unsure of how she was even outside in the first place. All she knew was that there was something she needed to find, something precious that she had lost long ago.

After what felt like hours of walking, Weiss saw someone standing in the far distance. When she got closer, she saw that it was a girl with messy silver hair, wearing a ragged black sweater coupled with a matching skirt. When the child looked up from the ground and at Weiss, she smiled and suddenly jumped up from the snow with her black boots, obviously happy to see the heiress before her.

"Hi Weiss. It's good to see you again. Did you miss me?" asked the girl in a cheerful voice.

Weiss didn't know how to respond, because she had no memory of this girl. Knowing that she had to give some kind of a reply, she reluctantly asked, "I'm sorry, but do I know you?"

The girl's smile disappeared when she heard this and sadness started to creep onto her face.

"Don't you remember me? It's _, your best friend. Remember how we used to play in the snow together? We had so much fun, even if your dad didn't really like me."

Weiss blinked her eyes, now more confused because she had no recollection of ever playing with someone who looked like the child before her. The girl seemed to understand this when she saw Weiss's shocked face, and looked down at the ground in disappointment.

"Do you…do you not remember me? How could you not remember your best friend?"

Those words stung Weiss's cold heart harder than she expected. As the feeling became worse, her eyes started to fill with warm tears that threatened to overflow down her cheeks. While she struggled to keep the tears in, the girl sadly kicked away a part of the snow that gathered at her feet.

"Oh, that's why. We're just that different. After all these years, growing up in your dad's company would make you forget, and I don't blame you. I never really did like the place."

Looking back up with determined eyes, the girl continued, "But you know what? That's fine, because I never forgot about you. I can never forget you, even when I'm gone. Even if today is the same day when I was no longer able to be there as your friend."

Right as Weiss realized who she was, the girl's body became transparent and soon, it almost disappeared entirely from Weiss's eyes. Weiss moved forward and tried to grab onto the girl, but her shaking hand ran through the transparent shoulder.

Letting out a sad smile, the girl said, "Please, don't make it hard on yourself Weiss. I'm already gone, but I'm glad to know that you sort of remember me. And we'll always be friends Weiss. We'll always be friends for-."

The girl abruptly disappeared, leaving Weiss, who was on both of her knees, alone in the darkness. Soon, her surroundings suddenly shifted to a large room with a floor made entirely out of marble. Weiss heard a door open and looked up to see a familiar sturdy figure stand in the light of the doorway.

"Is that brat gone? Good riddance, all she did was make you run in that dreaded cold. Clean yourself up and go back to your studies; time is money and this company can't afford to lose any more money after what those rats from the White Fang have done to our investments."

The door slammed shut and once again, Weiss was left alone in the darkness. Soon, tears fell down her face as she could no longer bear the pain of being alone. And worst of all, one question plagued her mind, right as she woke up from the dream that she was in.

"_I know who you are. I remember almost everything, but…why? Why can't I remember your name?"_

* * *

"Weiss?! Weiss! What are you doing?! Hurry and give me the star before I fall off!"

The voice made Weiss lose focus on the thoughts of her dream and look up to see that Ruby was teetering back and forth on a huge, unstable pile of random objects. Suddenly remembering why she was there, Weiss immediately threw the star ornament she had in her hand to Ruby, hoping that she made it in time.

Ruby managed to grab the star and place it on top of a pine tree in front of her before the pile of random objects collapsed into a puddle of mess. Weiss watched in horror as she saw the pile take Ruby down with it into the ground. After falling into the pile, Ruby's head popped out with a smile and looked up at the Christmas tree, satisfied to see the star is up there.

"That was close, but we are now finished. And it's the…the…okay, not the best, but we did the best we can to make it something."

Weiss could only put a hand over her face as she heard this while trying to calm the panic in her heart. After she calmed down, she looked back at the Christmas tree, unimpressed by their attempts with putting up its decorations.

"Well, if you retrieved a ladder like a sane person, then we wouldn't have had to decorate the Christmas tree in such a rough manner, you dunce! In fact, I don't know why we're using this Christmas tree in the first place!"

Weiss pointed at the messy Christmas tree and regretted that her team was one of the few that has volunteered to do the Christmas decorations in the main ballroom and hallways. Tomorrow was Christmas and since preparations for the Vytal Festival takes precedence, only a few people were available for the task.

When Yang brought up the idea of taking a tree from the Emerald Forest, it sounded great and the whole team went out there to get one. Several hours later, everybody came back with the Christmas Tree, along with some scratches and bruises from their numerous encounters with the Grimm.

Unfortunately, they retrieved one that had burns and scratches at the trunk, evident that a certain brawler thought the best way to take it down was by force. That might also explain the burnt line that ran all the way up one part of the Christmas tree.

"_Thankfully, nobody is around to criticize the appearance…at least until people exchange presents during tomorrow's Christmas party_. _Oh no, we'll be the laughing stock of the school for this._"

While Weiss hung her head in shame, Ruby got out of the mess and said, "We can't ask for more than this, so we might as well be happy with what we have. That reminds me, Yang and Blake should be done with the wreaths right about…"

Yang and Blake came around the corner of a hallway, with pieces of wreathe shavings hanging onto their hair and clothes.

"…now."

While the two older girls shook off the shavings, Yang said, "Whew, we're almost done here. Now all we need to do is wait for Jaune's team to finish up with the lights. After that, we can just relax; I am so happy that classes are canceled for the rest of today!"

While Yang stretched her arms out in excitement, Weiss only huffed from this piece of news and complained, "I don't see why they should cancel classes today. Just because Professor Horoscope simply 'predicted' what the weather will be doesn't mean we should take him by his word."

"But he never missed a forecast ever since he started teaching here. Besides, we should take the day to relax and enjoy the holiday," replied Blake as she dusted away the final piece of wreathe shaving sticking out from her shoulder.

Ruby and Yang smiled at Blake, happy to see that their teammate didn't have any bad impression on this holiday as she did during Thanksgiving. However, Weiss was still in a sour mood, and most of it came from the her feelings about the canceled classes.

"Oh well, if we're all going to listen to a former rapscallion like him, then all of you might as well jump off a cliff when he gives the order. I'll be off somewhere else, trying not to make such a silly mistake."

As every member of Team RWBY looked at Weiss, their eyes suddenly widened at another sight occurring outside a nearby window. Pointing at the window, Yang said, "Um Weiss, I hope he never tells us to do something like that, but the thing happening behind you might persuade us to consider it."

Weiss turned around and lightly gasped as she saw large amounts of snowflakes fall onto the snow-covered ground. As everybody walked up to the window to see the sight of the winter wonderland in the sun-lit area, Weiss stood back and felt uneasy from the sight.

"_It's snowing…it's snowing today of all days that it can snow. And it looks just the same as the time when it happened."_

"Look, it's snowing! Wow, no wonder they wanted to cancel classes; it's too cold for them to give us any lessons!" exclaimed Ruby. Yang merely chuckled from hearing such a naive statement and said, "Ruby, we're here in a school where they teach us how to fight monsters. Do you think that they'll really cancel training just to have us avoid getting a cold?"

Ruby groaned as she heard this and whispered, "Well, you're the only one who could wear your clothes and not feel a thing. It's probably the same reason why Dad doesn't let you ice skate where the boys could see you."

Reaching over and giving Ruby a noogie, Yang exclaimed, "Hey, I heard that! And thanks for reminding me, I still didn't pay you back for that time you tattled on Dad about me sneaking out for that ice-skating party!"

While Ruby and Yang were fooling around, Blake noticed that Weiss didn't seem too excited about the snow as they were. Concerned for her friend, Blake asked, "Weiss, are you okay? Does the snow bother you a lot?"

That question seemed to throw Weiss off as she replied, "W-what? That's preposterous. I came from a Kingdom that is famous for having more snow than this. How can I possibly be unnerved by the sight of it?!"

Blake didn't buy the explanation, but she knew that if it was something that Weiss didn't want to talk about, then it's probably best to leave it alone. They've already had one argument before, and the undesired result made her leave several days before they made up.

"You just don't seem excited as we are. I just wanted to make sure that you're fine."

"_Not excited?! Who would be excited about a little snow?. It's just frozen water that …but okay, it's nice of Blake to ask me. It's just not her problem to be worried about it."_

Before Weiss could reassert that she was, Ruby got out of Yang's hold and proclaimed, "It's really snowy out there. We should go out and do stuff, like have a snowball fight, before Jaune and the others get back. Ooh, we come back later and warm up with some hot chocolate!"

"That sounds great; I call dibs on teaming up with Blake, cause, let's face it Ruby, you and Weiss can't throw a snowball that can knock out a Beowolf, even for your life."

While Ruby exclaimed, "That's not true," to Yang, Blake gave her own response with a silent smile and followed Ruby and Yang back to their room to retrieve their winter clothes. However, Weiss stood where she was, panicking from the thought of going out in the snow.

"_No! We shouldn't go out today! I'll…they'll…I have to stop them!"_

"No! Let's not go out, um, I'm sure that we can find a more satisfying activity than get ourselves cold and wet from the snow."

While all three girls turned to look at Weiss, Weiss realized that she spoke without thinking of an explanation for her random outburst. After putting herself on the spot like that, Weiss decided to just speak the first words that came to mind.

"There's plenty of things to do indoors. We can play cards, watch movies, and even have a study session. You've been behind on your history lessons Ruby, so now would be the perfect time for me to help you rectify your lack of progress."

Yang, who was feeling freaked out from the worried expression on Weiss's face, came up to Weiss and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Weiss, are you okay? You seem…well, I've never seen you freak out this way before."

Lightly brushing Yang's hand away, Weiss nervously replied, "Freak out? Who's freaking out?! Nobody here is freaking out, right?!"

Weiss's words didn't convince anybody that she's fine, and her nervous smile only raised their suspicions about her behavior. However, Blake didn't seem to let it bother her as much, as she said, "Well, Ruby has the right idea. We should have some fun while there's still snow to play in."

While Ruby and Yang nodded in agreement, Weiss felt her uneasiness build up as she said, "Playing in the snow is so overrated. We're not kids anymore; why do we have to lower ourselves to such immature activities?"

Frowning from hearing this, Blake replied, "I think we all want to play in the snow, regardless of whether or not it's something that kids would only do. You can stay inside if you want Weiss; we'll be back later to help finish the decorations."

As Weiss listened to Blake, her mind started to put together information that slowly planted an evil thought in her mind. Soon, Weiss felt her uneasiness reach its peak as the thought poisoned her mind to no end.

"_Shut up, shut up, shut up Weiss. No, I can't blame her for that; she would've been too young to be a part of it. But, she's been with the White Fang ever since she was a child. Only those monsters would ever…"_

Lacking any grip of self-control, Weiss suddenly exclaimed, "Why are you so insistent on going out?! The last time I checked, the White Fang causes the most damage when they're out there in the snow!"

Everybody felt shocked from hearing this outburst, as they never expected it to come from Weiss. Blake obviously didn't take it well the most, as shown by her eyebrows furrowing together in anger.

"Weiss, what exactly do you mean by that?"

Unwilling to back down from what she started, Weiss angrily replied, "It means exactly as I mean it. You want to go out there so you can stab us in the back as an agent of the White Fang, am I right?"

The accusation only made Blake angrier while it made Ruby and Yang panic about the repercussions. Trying to settle to settle the argument before it began, Yang interrupted with, "Weiss, I think that's a pretty wild accusation. Blake said that she's not even with the White Fang anymore, remember?"

Sadly, it only seemed to help fan the flames as Weiss replied, "Everybody in the White Fang are monsters; lying just makes it easier for them to hit us when we least expect it. I mean, did you listen to her on that day? I bet every agent was trained to recite something as ridiculous as that by memory!"

Blake, unable to stand Weiss's words any longer, angrily exclaimed, "How could you say that?! You know that I meant what I said on that day and you even told me that you didn't care! Doesn't that lie make you even worse than the people you're calling monsters?!"

Blake's rising voice surprised Ruby and Yang as they have never seen Blake so furious since the last time she was mad at Weiss.

"I said what I said because I believed that you really did cut ties with the White Fang! But you know what?! I changed my mind when I remembered that every Faunus who enjoys the snow also likes to paint it red when they're murdering innocent human beings!"

Having heard enough of this, Blake angrily finished with, "Well you know what?! You might as well have deserved whatever they did to you, because you don't deserve to have anything, you selfish, heartless hypocrite!"

With that, both Weiss and Blake angrily walked off towards different directions, leaving behind Yang and Ruby who had once again witnessed a terrible argument between their two teammates and friends. Yang sighed after watching them both disappear from her sight, realizing that she and Ruby has some work to do.

"Go…go talk to Weiss. As her leader and friend, you'll probably have more luck with her than I do," said Yang before going after Blake. Ruby slowly nodded her head and went after Weiss, knowing that she had the toughest task of bringing back their team together.

* * *

Yang tackled through the door to the rooftop, where Blake was at to watch the falling snow. While Blake turned around to see what made the noise, Yang smiled, happy to see that her first guess led her to the right place.

"Hey, here you are. And it's the same place where I found you back when I was looking for you on Thanksgiving. Maybe this could be our go-to place anytime we have an issue."

Blake smirked as she heard this and replied, "Sure, as long as you can keep the door intact."

After Yang stood beside Blake, she decided that she should probably wait to see if Blake had something to say. After watching the falling snow fall from the dimly-lit sky in silence for several minutes, Blake finally said something to break the uneasy tension.

"I'm sorry you had to hear us yell at each other like that. I tried to be reasonable, but hearing Weiss say all of that really threw me off. I thought she was a better person than that."

Understanding her situation, Yang replied, "Oh, it's no big deal. I've heard worse arguments than that. But what about you? Did her words really make you feel that bad?"

Blake didn't answer Yang's question, which means that it probably did hurt her as badly as Yang feared. While Yang was thinking of a way to cheer her up, Blake placed her gaze over the rooftop to view the ground now covered in several feet of snow.

"You know, I wish she of all people never said that to me. When she told me that she didn't care that I was in the White Fang, I was really happy to hear that; she lifted a guilt that made me feel as if I became closer with the team. To hear that she never believed me just…just makes me sad to know that our close relationship was all a lie."

Yang was listening intently the whole time, understanding that Blake just explained to her the huge amount of pain that came from Weiss's words. But even if she understood, Yang knew that she needed to place an explanation for Weiss in order to mend the relationship between them.

"C'mon, you know Weiss. She's had a lot of issues with the White Fang. It's probably because of that why she told you all of that stuff. She was seemed to be freaked out about something; I noticed that her eyes seem to almost pop out when she saw the snow outside the window."

Raising her eyebrows in surprise as she heard Yang's words, Blake said, "Yang, that's a surprisingly deep analysis. It's kind of different from your usual direct methods."

"Hey, just because I prefer to use my fists doesn't mean that I can't use my head in situations like this. How else can I be the older sis of this team?"

Blake smiled as she heard this and looked at the sky, as if she was lost in thought, probably thinking over what Yang has just said. Thinking back on what else she could cover during their time together, Yang remembered something interesting that Blake never gave an answer for.

"You know, you never answered Weiss's question and now I'm curious about it. Why do you want to go out in the snow so much? Was Christmas time not a popular thing back at your place too?"

Shaking her head, Blake replied, "We had plenty of Christmas holidays, but it rarely snowed back at where I used to live at. In fact, this is the first time I've seen this much snow in one place. It's a beautiful sight, even more beautiful than I've ever read about in the books."

Placing a hand out to catch a couple of snowflakes in her hand, Blake continued, "I've read that no two snowflakes are the same, but they're so small that I can barely tell the difference. They also melt away the moment they touch your skin, and…well, it's just a wonder that I never got to experience until now."

Yang was lightly smiling as she listened to Blake, never having to see and hear so much curiosity aside from her baby sister.

"And this might sound childish, but I guess…after all of you helped me enjoy Thanksgiving, I wanted to enjoy my first snow activities with all of you again."

Shaking off the small amount of snow that gathered on her head, Blake continued, "But perhaps it was too selfish of me, and I guess it was a bit much calling her a hypocrite, even if I already knew that she was off today. I just- I wanted us to get along and hope that she could join with the rest of us if we were to play out in the snow later."

Saddened to be reminded of the argument, Yang placed a hand on Blake's shoulder and declared, "Look, it's not really yours or even her fault to begin with. Arguments happen between good friends, which is why you two need to be able to make up with each other in time to celebrate a good Christmas together."

Blake looked at Yang and saw that her lilac eyes have turned battle-ready red. However, Blake didn't see an angry Yang, but rather a determined one who wanted to see her and Weiss get back together. And strangely, Blake wanted to make up with her as well and at least enjoy the first time she spent Christmas with her first, non-Faunus friends.

Nodding her head, Blake said, "Alright, then let's go find her. I'm still not comfortable with the way things are, but I want us to end this argument before it gets any worse."

Happy to see that her friend agreed with her, Yang said, "Alright, then let's go find her. Ruby should be done talking to her by now, so who knows. Maybe you two will just end up making up on the spot."

* * *

"_Remember your training; take up a stance, aim your sword, and thrust it into the heart of any White Fang scum who would dare come after me."_

Weiss stabbed Myrtenaster into the tree in front of her and tried to dig it deeper into the tough layer of wood. When she felt that it wouldn't go any deeper, she pulled out the blade and took up another stance while releasing a hot breath visible in the cold, dark air.

"_Always remember that they never strike alone; be prepared to unleash everything against those monsters."_

Weiss let out several swings at the tree and was successful in leaving several deep gashes into the wood.

"_The same monsters that would dare come after me and everybody I care about. I'll never let them touch them, not as long as I hold the power to do so."_

"Weiss, what are you doing?"

Weiss looked over her shoulder to see a concerned Ruby slowly approach her as she treaded through the snow.

Weiss looked back at the tree with her blade poised to strike and replied, "I'm trying to think of something more fun that we can do. What do you think about playing Monopoly? It has to be more fun than throwing balls of ice at each other."

Amused to hear this statement, Ruby said, "Out here in the cold? We might as well do something now while we're outside rather than go through the trouble of going back inside."

With eyes never leaving the tree, Weiss replied, "No, there's no need to think that way. I'm out here for just a moment; training was canceled today, so I need to make up for it by doing some practice. Just go back inside and I'll be back with a great idea. You'll see."

After taking one more swing at the tree full of gashes from the previous strikes, Weiss turned to see that Ruby was still there, with the entirety of her cloak wrapped around her body for warmth.

Deciding to go straight to the point, Ruby asked, "Weiss, is there something that Blake did that might have made you angry? I'm sure that she didn't mean to make you feel bad since she just wanted to play out here in the snow with us."

Weiss sighed from hearing the question and replied, "No, she didn't do anything wrong. I wasn't thinking clearly when I said all of those terrible things to her."

Slightly relieved to hear that it wasn't really about Blake, Ruby asked, "Well, do you mind talking about it? I can probably help you better than that tree can."

Ruby waited for an answer, but all she saw was Weiss staring at the snowy ground with her angry features slowly evaporating away. A moment later, Weiss suddenly raised her head and looked at Ruby with a sad expression on her face.

"I'm scared Ruby, scared of how I can lose all of you again. It was eating away at me all day, and…and…and it's probably the reason why I said those harsh words to Blake."

Confused, Ruby asked, "Again? Did something happen to us? Oh, if it's about what happened in the past few months, then I can kind of understand. We were almost in bad shape when we went out to the Emerald Forest today."

"No you dunce! I…I mean…" said Weiss before she let out a noise of frustration.

Taking a deep breath, Weiss contemplated on whether or not she wanted to tell Ruby about today's meaning to her. When she saw that Ruby still had that concerned look on her face, she realized that she might as well owe her an explanation. At least, as much as she's willing to share.

"Listen, it's not about all of you, well, you see…"

Weiss momentarily paused as her mind couldn't form the coherent words to express her feelings. Weiss has never been straightforward with her feelings, and now seems to be the time that lack of experience is making her struggle like this.

Trying to find the right words to start with, Weiss decided to take a deep breath and start over from the beginning.

"_Okay, maybe this is a little harder than I thought it was going to be. Relax, it's just Ruby…or maybe it can only be Ruby who I can talk to."_

In a slow voice, she began, "I used to have a friend who lived in a place that was close to where I lived at. We happened to have met by chance and strangely, we became good friends after that. It was awkward at first too, because we would keep seeing each other in the forest we played in after we had a fight about what kind of families we came from."

Mindlessly walking back and forth across the ground, Weiss continued, "You kind of remind me of her; she was kind and strong at a really young age. It's amazing how we were friends, because we were complete opposites at the time, as if we were two sides of a coin that can never meet each other."

"Yet, we were still on the same coin, who saw value in each other as friends. Yeah, really good friends."

As Weiss continued to speak, Ruby saw something unusual form on Weiss's face. It was a smile, but it wasn't like the smile she had when she was trying to be polite or asking for a favor. It was genuine, and Ruby only saw that when Weiss was hanging out with her and everybody else who became a close friend.

"She also showed me what most people didn't teach me, like how to have a snowball fight and make a snowman out of the snow from the ground. Compared to the things I learned from books and strict teachers, those lessons have given me the best experiences of my life."

Right as Weiss finished her sentence, her smile slowly disappeared and was soon replaced by a frown forming along with an angry expression.

"Today is the day when that friend passed away a long time ago. No, she was murdered. Murdered by the White Fang, just because her family was working for the company they absolutely hated!"

As her voice rose in anger, Weiss suddenly took out Myrtenaster and swung at the tree again. While she let out several more strikes, Weiss continued, "One day, I was told that he village was attacked by the White Fang! There were no survivors there, but I didn't believe that! That's why I had to go there and see it for myself!"

After hitting the tree in an incessant fury, she finally stopped as she placed her weapon down in exhaustion.

"It was my first time too, going to a place that my dad would never allow me to visit. I even remembered the details about it because I was hoping that I could visit that place one day. Gosh, it was so stupid of me to do that; I wish I never found the place!"

Weiss suddenly stopped there, making it seem as if she was no longer willing to continue her story. Ruby decided to let it remain unspoken, already dreading from knowing what the result was.

"So…so is that why you were angry at Blake today? Do you hate the White Fang so much that you took it out on someone who used to be a part of it?" asked Ruby, who did it more out of curiosity than malice.

"No, that's only half the reason. When I see all this snow, it reminds me of what I hate. All of this snow falling around me."

Looking around, Weiss placed her weapon to her side before turning around to face Ruby.

"Snow…ha ha, that's why I hate it so much," laughed Weiss while she brought a hand up to her face. "I finally remembered that my friend's name was Snow. It's fitting too, because she was so pure, so kind. She's even the one who asked me to forgive her for that stupid fight we had when we first met each other."

With fists balled in anger, Weiss continued, "Thinking about it makes me so sad…so mad…so furious at the White Fang. Those abominations that would take one more precious person away from me!"

Weiss raised Myrtenaster and angrily swung at the tree next to her, leaving behind a gash so deep that it looked as if it could have toppled the tree over. When Weiss turned to face Ruby, Ruby felt shocked to see the tears that started to come out of Weiss's eyes.

"But you know what I hate the most?! I hate how I didn't do anything about it! I was more scared of the company, of my father's opinion rather than the well-being of my best friend…of what would happen to her when I knew the White Fang was out there…ready to take away one more person I cared about."

By the time Weiss finished her sentence, tears started to fall down her face while her knees gave out and forced her body to kneel into the snow.

"I could have done something when I knew that she was in danger, but I let the fear of my family's expectations stop me from doing anything about it! I should have done something to save her; I should have been a better person than that!"

While Weiss tried to stop the flowing tears with the sleeves of her jacket, Ruby finally realized the true pain in Weiss's heart. Most of it wasn't there because of the White Fang that committed the murder or her father who would have scolded her for any action that she could have taken.

Weiss shouldered the major part of the blame onto herself. For she was the only one who even bothered to remember another victim of a long feud that ruined the lives of many other people, including Weiss's own.

As Ruby took this revelation into mind, she realized that she perhaps holds the answer to end this suffering, even if it was just a bit of it. All she had to do now was share it, just as Weiss had done for the past few minutes.

"Weiss, you shouldn't do this to yourself; you can't blame yourself for your friend's death."

Pushing down her silent hiccups, Weiss angrily asked, "What are you talking about?! I don't ever recall blaming myself. And what would you know?! You're just a child; how could you understand what I'm feeling right now?!"

Taking one step forward, Ruby replied, "Because I lost someone, Weiss. I lost someone who also gave me something important in my life."

Weiss raised her tear-stricken face to look at Ruby, surprised to hear an unusual sadness come from her jovial leader. When Ruby saw that she had Weiss's attention, she looked up to see the dimly-lit gray clouds grow darker with the setting sun.

"I'm not going to say that I fully understand you Weiss, because I lost my precious person in a different way. But I think it's fair to say that I know your loss and I want you to listen to what I have to say."

Weiss remained silent after hearing this, which encouraged Ruby to take several more steps. When she reached where Weiss was at, she bent her knees low enough to where she could make eye contact with the kneeling heiress.

"You were a child, Weiss. There was really nothing you can do. I can speak from experience, you know. I wasn't always able to use the scythe like I can today, and I wish I could have had this power to prevent losing the person I cherished."

Taking one warm hand and lightly brushing away a teary trail from Weiss's cheek, Ruby placed her other hand over Weiss's calloused and cold ones.

"It hurts…yeah, it can really hurt when you lose someone important. The world isn't always nice; it can take something irreplaceable away and never give anything back to help make up that feeling of loss."

"But you need to remember that she was your friend, Weiss. If she was still alive today, then she'll never allow you to have this guilt in the first place. That's why you need to be able to forgive yourself, for yours and her sake."

Even if she was feeling better from the warmth that came from Ruby's hand and words, Weiss asked in a shaky voice, "How can you be sure that she'll forgive me? I was the only one who had any chance of being safe from the White Fang, not her. It feels like I abandoned her when I could have done something more for her."

Ruby let out a sad smile, happy to hear Weiss opening up to her while sad to hear more of the guilt that continued to plague her.

"If there was a bad group of people like the White Fang out there, terrorizing everything related to your company, would anybody still want to see you in that forest? Yeah, it sounds strange when you think about it, but that didn't stop her from seeing you Weiss. She still came to see you in such a scary time because she wanted to spend that time being happy with you."

"Even if she did meet a cruel end, I'm sure that she's happy that you remained her friend to the end. You've already done all that you can, so the only thing you can do is honor what she did by moving forward. She would want that for you, just as you would have wanted that for her."

Weiss could only listen and not say a word because she was too amazed by what she had heard. Nobody, not even herself, seemed able to say these words to her…that is, until she heard it come from Ruby.

However, Weiss knew better than to think that her friend would have had such a thought in mind. After losing many people she cared about to the White Fang's cruel methods, how could her friend's ending be any different?

Yet, Weiss wanted to believe that it was true. Despite her guilt that came with the passing of her friend, she wanted to think that her friendship is the best that she offered to Snow before her untimely end.

In a small voice, Weiss said, "Thank you Ruby. I don't if that is true…but…I'm at least hoping that she didn't regret the time we spent together. I know that I didn't."

Ruby smiled as she heard this, finally relieved to hear the pain in Weiss's words disappear. Taking Weiss's hands into her own, Ruby helped her from her kneeling position and made a bigger smile to display her happiness to Weiss.

"Alright, let's go see Blake now. It's important that you keep the friendships that you have today, or how would you continue the happiness that you shared with Snow?"

As Weiss felt her voice go back to normal, she replied, "Oh…you're right. I guess we should go find her. I hope she's not running around town again in this chilly weather.

"Well, you don't have to look too far, cause she's right here."

Ruby and Weiss turned towards the voice to see Yang waving a hand at them while Blake stood beside her with crossed arms. Slowly walking up to the duo, Ruby felt anxious as she watched the interaction between Weiss and Blake unfold before her.

Weiss, who showed no sign of the sadness she displayed to Ruby, said, "Were you here the entire time I was with Ruby? Because if you were, then I hope that might explain my behavior today."

Shrugging her shoulders, Blake replied, "We came right as you started crying. It was surprising because I never knew that someone as heartless as you could ever shed tears."

Weiss felt the words sting from Blake's slightly bitter tone. It seemed unnecessary, but Weiss couldn't blame Blake since she was the one who started the dilemma between them in the first place.

"So…can I go first or do you have something else that you need to get out of your system?"

Rubbing her cold hands together, Weiss looked intensely at Blake, which Ruby and Yang took as a sign that things might not turn out well again.

"I'm sorry Blake. There's no excuse for what I said to you earlier. Will you forgive me for saying something so heartless and irresponsible to you?"

Yang and Ruby were surprised to hear this apology come out from nowhere. Their shock turned to joy when they saw Blake slowly nod her head, accepting at least some part of Weiss's apology.

"Honestly, I feel that I should be much angrier for what you said Weiss. But, after hearing your story, it makes sense. Next time, we'll just stay in and enjoy our time together, is that alright?"

Weiss felt relief as she heard these words, happy to know that Blake showed that she understood her. But when she heard the last part of Blake's statement, she remembered a question that Blake hasn't answered yet.

"Blake, I'm not asking to accuse you of something ridiculous again, but why did you want to go play in the snow so much?"

Blake's smile suddenly disappeared only to be replaced by a sheepish expression.

"I wanted to go out because, well, I never saw this much snow before. And when we were going to do something outside together…well, experiencing my first snow activities with my friends seemed…exciting. I know, it's childish, but after what you did for me on Thanksgiving, I guess I just wanted to have another good experience with all of you. I mean, I guess I was being too selfish; it's kind of what led us into our argument into the first place."

This confession made Weiss remember her own first experience with her own snow activities. Even if it was long ago, it was a precious moment for her because she experienced it with a good friend.

"_And Snow…she showed just how fun it was when you're not trying to do everything by yourself trying to, figure it out after seeing the other kids do it. Oh Blake, you were just like me when I was little, weren't you?"_

"It's not selfish, you can…no, you have the right to enjoy it as much as we all did when we first did it."

Surprised to hear this compared to what Weiss told her back at the ballroom, Blake asked, "Do you really mean that? Didn't you say that it was something too immature for us to do?"

"Of course it's not!" exclaimed Weiss. "Forget what I said! You should have some kind of experience like that at least once in your life, especially when you have friends who are willing to support you!"

Weiss's declaration and Blake's momentary silence made Ruby's mouth curl into a wide smile. Jumping up and down, Ruby declared "Alright, then that settles it! Team RWBY is back together to enjoy our time in the snow together!"

Although Yang rolled her eyes from hearing this, yet she couldn't agree more as she happily replied, "Yeesh, we really should calm down and just stick together rather than stick to all this drama. But should we go inside first and check to see if Jaune and his team are done with their work?"

Weiss suddenly felt an evil grin form on her lips from an idea. She turned around and dropped to her knees before picking up some snow in her hands.

While she made rotating motions with her hands, she said, "Our leader here already said that we should just stay outside rather than go through the trouble of going back and forth. Besides, there is one part of business that needs to be settled right now."

Everybody looked at Weiss, confused by the statement, with Yang being the one who asked, "Hm? What's that?"

Weiss picked up the snowball she formed in her hands and threw it straight into Yang's face.

"That is a snowball and I just declared an all-out snowball fight to determine who is going to clean up the mess that we left under the Christmas tree. It's 2-on-2 and I'm on Blake's team!"

While Yang stood in shock by the sudden turn of events, Weiss and Blake ran in a different direction and stood behind a group of trees for cover. When Yang finally gathered her bearings together, she shoveled a huge amount of snow out of the ground and prepared to make a snowball the size of a small boulder.

"Okay, you are so going to get it. C'mon baby sis, let's show them what we're made of!"

When she looked at Blake and Weiss's cover, Yang went silent when she saw a huge pile of snowballs form rapidly behind them. Looking closer past the trees, Yang saw Weiss use Myrtenaster to create the balls of snow. Next to her, Blake tied her ribbon between two trees, transforming it into what looked like a launcher of some sort.

"Hey, that's cheating! We never said that we could use our weapons!"

Before Yang could continue her protest, she felt a snowball slam into the back of her head. Turning around, Yang was horrified to see Ruby as the culprit, who threw the snowball behind the cover of several bushes.

"Ruby! What was that for?! Weren't we supposed to be on the same team?!"

While Ruby threw another snowball at Yang, she replied, "I dunno, I thought my arms were too scrawny to help you in this fight. And I don't really care if we lose; this is the perfect time to show you what I'm made of, sis."

"Hey, you know that I didn't mean it like that! Ow, that is so unfair; I call friendly fire!"

As Ruby, Weiss, and Blake combined their efforts on taking down Yang, none of them noticed that Ozpin was watching them through his office window while drinking a hot cup of coffee(?) in his hand. Enjoying the sight of the snowball fight take place, he continued to watch even as Goodwitch came up behind him with a stack of papers in hand.

"Here we are sir, all of the requests for assistance from the Schnee Dust Company is now in order. The White Fang is continuing their relentless assault on their distribution centers and in my opinion, it seems to be worse this year than the last."

"Hm," said Ozpin, who never let his sight turn away from the window. Goodwitch continued to head to his desk before slamming the pile onto the top. Knowing that she can talk about the contents later, Goodwitch came up behind Ozpin to also see Team RWBY enjoying their activity.

"By the way sir, why did you cancel classes today? We usually teach our students to engage monsters in any type of environment, so why is today special?"

Letting out a throaty chuckle, Ozpin replied, "Is it terrible to cancel classes because I simply didn't want to teach out in the cold today?" That statement almost made Goodwitch leave her mouth gaping open as she could not believe that Ozpin would ever do something like this for such an irresponsible reason.

"Oh, and make sure you're ready to teach class on Monday. Professor Horoscope predicted that it's going to stop snowing on Sunday, so it will be your turn to teach after that day."

Goodwitch felt even more horrified as she watched Ozpin walk away with a smug grin on his face, seemingly happy to have an extended break for himself. Not willing to let this go without a proper explanation, Goodwitch started to go after Ozpin.

"Sir, is it really fair to use your authority for such a reason? Professor Ozpin. Professor Ozpin?!"

As both professors walked away, a blast of fire erupted from the snowy ground and melted most of the nearby snow. After the fire died down, Yang's enflamed body came into view with her eyes already changed into a shade of red.

"Alright, if it's an all-out war you want, then you better get ready! It's going to take more than an army of snowballs to take me down!"

Right as she said this, multiple snowballs appeared out of nowhere and immediately bombarded Yang's entire body in snow again. Soon, only Yang's red eyes could be seen as her entire body became encased in a snowy prison.

While Ruby was rolling behind her cover in laughter, Weiss and Blake looked at each other and gave a high-five, celebrating their first snowball victory together.

**Many people come and go as we continue to live on with our lives. Even as we lose those who we cherished, we mustn't dishonor their existence with sadness. For friendship does not only bring happiness today, but it also nurtures to help find a better tomorrow.**

* * *

_Somewhere, far away_

A woman with long silver hair stood over the edge of a cliff, watching a building that had the Schnee Dust Company logo painted on its side. As her blue skirt fluttered against the wind, the woman reached down to adjust her black sweater to make sure it won't fall off during battle again.

After scanning the entire area, the woman saw that there wasn't much security to be concerned about. Since this building is located on the outskirts of the Kingdom, nobody would think that a place like this would be attacked by a group as notorious as the White Fang.

"_Fools, every place that bears the Schnee name are the enemy. From those experienced to those who are young, we will all bear our fangs against them."_

Her thoughts were interrupted by the phone beeping in her hand, indicating that it was time to start the assault. The woman knew that she had at least an hour to finish; any more will make her receive her teacher's scolding.

"_Of course, Adam always wanted to get the job done quickly. He says it's to prevent any loss of life on our side, but he's never been the most trustworthy one. Only a strong one."_

Looking at the large field of white snow located to her right, the woman saw distant city lights lighting the night sky. Seeing the city made her remember a fond memory of a friend from long ago.

"_Weiss, I hope you're doing fine while you're away. The last thing I want is for you to ever see me like this."_

Lost in her thoughts, Snow almost didn't see a White Fang member run up to her and tell her, "Snow Aquarius, we're ready to commence the assault on the building. We are ready as soon as you give the signal."

Nodding her head, Snow walked back with the man towards the other side of the cliff, where a small group of the other members were hiding behind some boulders and rocks. It's unnecessary to hide, but they were taught to think better than that. If they had been so naïve, then all of the Faunus would have been forced to live in the man-made prison of Menagerie.

Snow slowly walked to the cliff edge in front of the group and scanned the huge gate with her yellow eyes. Reaching for the bottom of her sweater, Snow took it off and revealed a white underdress that hugged her well-trained body.

Sighing from the relief of taking off the sweater, Snow felt her white wings expand out in the air, shining brightly under the moonlight dimly peeking over the edge of the clouds. Everybody who was hiding in the boulders watched this scene, mesmerized by the sight of their beautiful and strong leader.

Even as she enjoyed the feeling of freedom, Snow felt sad as her thoughts hovered back to Weiss, the one human who will always be her friend, despite their differences.

"_I never want you to see me like this…I never want you to know who I am. Because if you knew who I was back when I stayed at that village …"_

Spreading her white wings out, Snow reached for a brown metal shaft at her back and lifted the light-blue blade on its end into the air. Raising the blade towards her side, Snow got ready as her halberd glowed in a white light.

"…_you might have not forgiven me for what I'm a part of, just as much as I can't forgive your family for what they've done to me."_

Looking over her shoulder, Snow yelled out, "Follow my lead; we'll have this place cleaned out before sunrise."

Swinging the halberd down at the building, a wave of ice shot out and encased the guards at the front door in an icy prison. With the area now clear of any resistance, Snow and the White Fang forces charged, ready to destroy another part of their long hated enemy.

* * *

A/N:

Merry Christmas everybody. I hope the holidays treat all of you well and you each find someone who you can enjoy it with together.

Okay, I have some explaining to do. I said no OC's, but…after I made most of this story, I realized that I might have added some nonsense, like 'how can any reasonable person who knows the White Fang want to let a child of all people wander into the forest like that?'

I also thought that adding her survival might add a surprising element, cause I'm still a writer, training with every element that could make a story good. With that said, she really serves no other purpose aside from maybe making a future holiday chapter…unless someone has an idea that they would like for me to do.

So, I was thinking that even if Weiss said she didn't care, having a bad history doesn't mean that she'll be able to get over her feelings quickly. Losing a friend might have caused her to have the reaction in this story, but I might have overdone it.

For those of you familiar with my other stories, yes, Professor Horoscope is a reference to one of those characters. Is he going to be a regular OC, no. I only used this name because I needed someone who can fit the 'forecaster' kind of character by name, no other purpose. I'm really trying to keep to my 'no major OC' thing, although making Snow might have crossed a bit of that line.

I'm thinking of putting up another Christmas chapter, but it might be a little later after Christmas. The focus will be on Jaune and a particular Faunus. I apologize if I couldn't get that chapter out in time if that happens (as you can tell, I'm typing this as I only have that chapter halfway done.)

Also PM or leave a review behind about the chapter if you have any thoughts and thanks for reading.


	3. Worst Present Ever?

Worst Present Ever?

A/N: Again, I am really sorry that this had to go up the day after Christmas. The previous chapter was…a doozy. Hope the shorter length and better theme relation makes up for the holidays. At least, if I am successful in relaying this to all of you readers

I don't know why, but when I was listening to this music, it seemed to fit the mood that I wanted to display in this story. Even the title kind of matches, so you should check it out:

watch?v=0hbqBgJC1wI

(**Disclaimer**: Monty Oum and Roosterteeth owns RWBY while everybody else owns whatever I use as reference. I only own the OC's and unofficial story parts.)

* * *

"Jaune, you moron! How could you do something as idiotic as this?!"

Jaune struggled to gulp down the lump in his throat as Weiss angrily towered over his fallen form. Looking past her legs, Jaune saw the Christmas tree he accidentally tripped on lay in ruins on the floor of the ballroom. Around the tree stood his teammates and the rest of Team RWBY, who were all concerned about the damage in front of them.

"Well, it's not that bad. I mean, we can just lift it back up and redecorate it, right?"

That statement only made Weiss more furious and exclaim, "Did you fall down so hard that you lost some brain cells in the process?!" Jaune's clueless expression made Weiss bring a hand up to her temple to massage out the stress.

"You dolt! It's easier said than done; the Christmas tree was already in poor condition when we got it yesterday and now, the trunk is broken in half! Even worse, the fall managed to scatter the ornaments all over the ballroom floor!"

Weiss swept her arm in the direction of the floor to show Jaune the scattered ornaments, which were making a mess that cannot be cleaned in a matter of minutes.

"We're never going to finish this in two hours; everybody will be here for the Christmas event and this will not only bring down both of our team's credibility, but also make us the laughing stock of the entire school!"

Now realizing how much damage he has done with his fall, Jaune nervously said, "Well, two hours is plenty of time to do something . Why don't we-."

"No," interrupted Weiss. "You've done enough damage already. You shouldn't risk messing anything else up, so why don't you get out of the way while we fix this."

Jaune slowly picked himself up as he realized that Weiss was right. He's already caused enough damage, and this was the last thing that he wanted to add to what is apparently the worst Christmas ever for him.

With this in mind, Jaune sadly walked away, hoping that his bad luck won't rub off on anyone else. Pyrrha saw him walk away and tried to go after him to see what was wrong.

"Jaune?! Where are you going?"

However, Weiss walked in front of Pyrrha to prevent her from running after her leader. Placing a hand on Pyrrha's shoulder, she said, "I know you want to cheer him up, but we need to clean this mess up before the event. If we lose one more pair of competent hands, then we're never going to get finished in time."

While Weiss dragged Pyrrha back to the mess that was once the Christmas tree, Pyrrha looked at where Jaune went, concerned that she couldn't be there for him anytime soon. Hoping that she could at least see him before the event started, Pyrrha steered her focus to the upcoming task.

As this event unfolded, Ruby was talking to the rest of the group about who they can expect to see later today. Is this necessary? Perhaps, because Ruby needed a distraction to keep everyone from feeling too concerned until someone was able to come up with a plan.

"Penny is coming and Velvet said that she is going to join too, but I couldn't find Sun when I went to town the other day," mused Ruby. The thought of the monkey Faunus concerned her because she really didn't see him since the Thanksgiving party that they had a couple of weeks ago.

Blake shook her head with a smile and said, "You don't need to worry about him. He comes and goes whenever he pleases, so we'll see him sometime soon…at least, before that snowstorm hits the town tonight."

Happy to know that there was nobody else to worry about, Ruby looked down at the fallen tree, ready to tackle another problem with her team. Now if only they had a solution to the problem at hand.

* * *

Inside Professor Oobleck's classroom, Jaune laid his head on a desk, thinking that he would do the least, if any kind of, damage there. As his thoughts wandered back to recent events, he lamented how his luck seemed to be at its worst during one of the best holidays of the year.

"_Gosh, everything is such a disaster. Cardin spilled eggnog all over my head, Professor Goodwitch gave me a lecture for smelling like eggnog, and I had to take a cold shower since the shower stall's heater broke after the last person used it."_

"_And not only did I screw up on getting a Christmas gift for Pyrrha, but it messed with my head so much that I didn't even pay attention to the Christmas tree. Why did this have to happen today?"_

Now thumping his head on the desk to ward off his shame, Jaune could still feel it moments later, only it was now aching with the headache he got from the constant banging.

"_Robbed, confused, and humiliated. Some Christmas this turned out to be. I wonder if I should have left for home and spend it with mom and dad. At least nothing bad happens when I'm celebrating with them."_

"Um, hello. Are you the one who made that banging noise in here?"

Jaune looked up and saw a familiar bunny-eared Faunus approach him while wearing a brown gown with a white underdress.

"Oh, hi. It's Velvet, right?"

Nodding her head, she said, "Yes, and you're Jaune. I remember seeing you at that Thanksgiving party a few weeks ago. Thanks again for having me back then."

Shaking his head, Jaune said, "If you're going to thank somebody, then thank Ruby and her team. They were the ones who put the whole thing together."

Both Jaune and Velvet smiled as they fondly remembered the event. While Jaune wished that things could have been as good as those days, Velvet looked at Jaune and saw him make a sad expression on his face.

"So…is something the matter? You must be upset enough to hit the desk and leave that red mark on your forehead."

Hearing this made Jaune unsure if he wanted to share his feelings with just anybody, especially with someone he barely knew. However, she might be the best confidant for him because everybody he's affiliated with barely knew her as well.

"Kind of, I think... Okay, things might not have been great for me today."

Besides, someone as soft-spoken as Velvet doesn't seem to have any evil motives and her rapt attention encouraged Jaune to continue with his explanation.

"Really, this might have been the worst Christmas that I ever had. Even worse, I managed to ruin everybody else's Christmas as my own just kept getting worse. Now I'm not sure if I can help make a friend's Christmas better by giving her something that I got for her the other day."

Seeing Jaune's face twist into a sadder expression made Velvet realize that he might have only given her the short version of everything bad that happened today. Velvet tried to quickly think of a different topic of discussion to lighten the mood of this conversation.

"So you went to get a Christmas present for just one person? She must be pretty special for you to go through the trouble of doing such a thing."

Shaking his head in disappointment, Jaune said, "No, it's not a present. It was a mistake. I thought it would have been something great, but after everything that's happened, I don't want to give it to her."

Now curious to see what the present is, Velvet asked, "Why did you think it was a good present? What made it so special that you got it especially for your friend?"

Placing his hand into his pocket, Jaune took out two pieces of gold coins with skulls engraved on the surfaces. When he showed them to Velvet, the Faunus was amazed by the sight, but Jaune shook his head to show that their appearance do not match their value.

"When I met this merchant guy at a store the other day, he said that these coins were made out of real gold. I shouldn't have believed him because, I mean, what kind of gold is worth a small amount of lien?"

Sad to hear that Jaune was cheated out of his lien, Velvet asked, "Oh, it's alright. I mean, the spent lien has to be worth something, right?"

"No, it wasn't worth it, because it wasn't really about the gold," said Jaune as he angrily looked at the coins.

"I wanted to get this for her because the label on it said that they're meant to protect warriors in battle. The person who I'm getting this for is usually sticking her head out for me during battle. I want to show that I appreciate it by giving her these good luck charms. After I realized that they were fake, well, it's kind of pointless to give it to her now."

Jaune felt fed up looking at the coins, which is why he suddenly threw them across the classroom. Velvet winced as she heard the two coins slam into the front wall of the classroom and saw them roll around the floor.

Jaune placed his head back into his arms and said, "They can't even make a scratch on the wall. What other purpose can they serve aside from being dead weight, like me? Heh, maybe that's all I am to everybody else. Just dead weight."

Unwilling to let Jaune be depressed by his bad day, Velvet went over to where the coins were at to pick them up.

"I think you're not giving the value that these items deserve. You bought them for someone important, so give it to her with the same intention."

Picking up the coins, Velvet walked back to Jaune and dropped the coins into his open outstretched hand.

"I'm not really rich, but I got someone a present with the lien I was able to save up. And personally, I'm happy to know that I can give something to the person I've come to like."

As the coins dropped into Jaune's hand, Velvet used her own hands to close Jaune's fingers around the coins. While she did this, she, along with Jaune, didn't notice that a small blue glow surrounded Jaune's hands.

"So even if she doesn't like it as much as you want her to, would it have been better if you got her nothing at all? I'm sure that she'll appreciate what you did for her, or at least, that's how I would feel if someone did the same thing for me."

Raising his head, Jaune realized that she was right. He wanted to give Pyrrha something in the end and show that he appreciated her for being his teammate, friend, and maybe even…

Strangely, Jaune's thoughts suddenly wandered back to Velvet's earlier statement. Looking back at her with a smile, he said, "You're right, you're absolutely right. I guess you would understand, since it looks like you also got a present for your own special person."

Blushing, Velvet hastily replied, "Uh, no, it's nothing like that. He's just a nice guy who's been looking out for me, so I want to repay him back. That's all! And I used some of the lien to get a present for someone else, so it's not a big deal. Really!"

As Jaune let out an amused smile, he saw Pyrrha suddenly appear from behind the classroom door. When Velvet turned and saw Pyrrha as well, she smiled and knew that now is a good time for her to take her leave.

"It was nice talking to you Jaune. I hope today gets better for you, and try not to hurt yourself again."

As Velvet walked past Pyrrha and into the hallway, Pyrrha walked towards Jaune just as he finished waving a farewell to Velvet.

"Oh, hey Pyrrha."

"Hey Jaune, I just came by to see if you're okay. Are you alright?"

Comparing his state of well-being from a while ago to now, Jaune realized he did in fact feel better after his talk with Velvet. This was how he was able to smile and honestly say, "Yeah, I'm feeling better. Thanks for asking, Pyrrha."

As Pyrrha smiled from hearing this, Jaune realized that he still had her present tightly closed around his hand. Thinking that now might be a good time to give it to her than possibly embarrass her in front of people later, Jaune stood up from his desk and went towards Pyrrha.

"Hey, Pyrrha. I know this is kind of early, but can you close your eyes and hold out your hand?"

When Pyrrha heard this, she suddenly looked up and around the air above her in a nervous manner. Confused by this, Jaune looked up at where she was looking at, but didn't see anything that would make her act like this.

"Uh, Pyrrha. Is there something wrong?"

Quickly looking at Jaune, Pyrrha nervously said, "Oh, it's nothing. It's nothing; I just didn't expect you to say that. Please, continue."

As Pyrrha slowly closed her eyes and put out a hand, Jaune lifted his own hand and used it to grab Pyrrha's wrist. When he did this, he thought he heard something Pyrrha make a noise, but it was too small and unusual for him to recognize what it was.

"_Did she just whimper? I can't tell, but gosh, it makes me feel like I'm going to do something terrible to her. I really hope she likes this."_

After misunderstanding the situation, Jaune placed the two coins into Pyrrha's hand before saying, "Alright, you can open your eyes now."

Pyrrha opened her eyes and looked down at the gold coins. Looking back up at Jaune, Pyrrha asked, "Jaune, are these-."

"Yeah, they're good luck charms that I bought at a store the other day. I know, it's really lame and they're not even made of real gold, but I thought it suits you since you're a great fighter. And you're always helping me out in combat, so… I hope that these can help you if you ever have a rough time, maybe when you're watching my back."

Pyrrha's eyebrows rose as she heard this and looked down at the coins. When she looked back at Jaune, she slowly asked, "Jaune, do you even know the story behind these two coins?"

Pyrrha's voice made Jaune nervously ask, "Uh, not really. Is there another meaning behind them?"

Pyrrha smiled, amused by Jaune's baffled expression, and said, "Well, to make a long story short, people in ancient times buried these coins next to those who died in combat. They believed that coins like these can be used by the spirits of the deceased to give to a ferryman who sends them to the afterlife."

During Pyrrha's explanation, Jaune started to sweat bullets as he realized that he might have given an inappropriate gift to his friend.

"_Oh, no. Now I gave her an item that literally says 'here's my way of sending you off when you die.' Great job Jaune, you really did it now."_

As Pyrrha closed her hand around the coins, her mouth slowly curved into a smile.

"It's small, convenient, and it seems fitting for me. Thank you Jaune, I really appreciate you getting these for me; I think I'll find more of my luck if I see them as your gifts rather than based on a silly old belief."

As Jaune heard this, he thought she was just saying that to be nice to him, but Pyrrha's smile made him change his mind. She looked pretty happy and appreciative of what he has done, just as Velvet had told him would happen.

Looking up at the clock, Jaune noticed that it was almost time for the event. Looking at Pyrrha, Jaune thought, "_Gosh, I wonder if everything went okay. Well, Pyrrha's here, so maybe they found a way to clean up the mess."_

"Hey Pyrrha, did everybody manage to do something about the mess? Everything must be done by now if you're here to get me."

Scratching the back of her head with a nervous smile, Pyrrha replied, "Oh, that. Well, I was more worried about you in the end, so I left during the middle of the cleanup to find you. I guess that makes me just as irresponsible as you."

Jaune let out a mournful groan as he thought about the consequences that Weiss had told him about if they never got to finish. But he knew that they still had to go, because if things do get bad, he and Pyrrha might as well be there for their friends and teammates.

"Alright, I guess it's time to face the music together. We should hurry and get there before anything bad happens."

Nodding her head, Pyrrha followed Jaune as he walked out of the classroom and back to the ballroom.

* * *

"Th-th-thanks for c-c-clearing the issue with th-that sec-curity guy; i-it was getting cold out there. I c-couldn't stay in the city, so I t-thought I could just warm myself here for a while."

Sun followed Ruby back to the ballroom while he just finished wiping off the bits of ice covering his clothes. Ruby smiled at him, happy to see that he came to join them in their festivities.

"It's no problem. You're just in time for the gift exchange part of the event. It's not really required, but did you bring a gift that you can give to somebody?"

Reaching for his back, Sun proudly said, "As a matter of fact, I did! Check it out, do you think a girl would like this?" Ruby looked at Sun's hand and saw a red ring shining brightly under the hallway light. Looking over the details, Ruby noticed that it was much too valuable to be simply bought at a store.

Looking up at Sun, Ruby asked, "Sun, can you tell me how you got this? It kind of looks a little too expensive for someone that our age can afford."

Shrugging his shoulders, Sun nonchalantly replied, "Oh, this? I got it from a jewelry store; they had this on display, so I just took it and walked out of there with no trouble at all."

Ruby gave Sun a suspicious look, unwilling to believe that Sun could have done this without getting into trouble.

"Sun, did the ring happen to be behind a glass display when you took it? And did you really walk out of there with no trouble at all? Blake warned me that you tiptoe around the law like you did during that time you hijacked that air jet full of fish."

Raising his hands in his defense, Sun calmly said, "Yeah, I had no trouble at all. And even if I did something like that, would anybody really miss this one measly ring?"

Ruby sighed as she heard this and decided to let the issue go. When Ruby moved her gaze back to the ballroom entrance, she never saw Sun wipe a hand across his sweating forehead. He was glad that he avoided telling her about his grand escape after his theft. Hopefully, the police will be unable to find him while he's all the way out here at Beacon.

While both Sun and Ruby walked into the noisy, brightly-lit ballroom full of various people, Cardin could be seen on the other side, having a conversation with the rest of his teammates.

"Well, I guess nobody's really giving us gifts this year. That's fine, we don't need a bunch of cheap gifts to make our day. We can just take the best looking one from one of the brats."

Laughing from hearing Cardin say this, Russell replied, "Yeah, maybe we can nab something from one of the freaks. That is, if anybody is willing to place anything into their dirty paws."

As Team CRDL laughed from the cruelty of their ideas, they never noticed Velvet walking up to them while she hid something behind her back. Reaching up to tap Cardin on the shoulder, Velvet asked, "Um, Cardin. Do you have a moment?"

Turning around, Cardin faced the Faunus and roughly asked, "What is it freak? Are you volunteering to be our first victim?"

Velvet slowly took a medium-sized present from behind her back and presented it to Cardin, who looked at her in surprise. A moment later, his expression turned sour as his displeasure for the Faunus made him unwilling to accept the gift.

"Are you giving me a pity gift?! I don't need something like this; you can take it back and give it to something else, and then I'll take it just to see the sorry face you make after that."

While Team CRDL laughed from seeing Velvet's sad expression, Weiss, who was nearby, saw what was happening and excused herself from her conversation with Blake. Weiss walked over to the group and said, "Just take it Cardin. Out of everybody else here, you might as well be grateful that 'something' like you would have anything at all."

Cardin glared back at Weiss and was ready to give a retort, but Velvet interrupted with, "No, it's fine. There's no need to argue; if he doesn't want it, then I'll just give it to someone else."

When Cardin heard this, he abruptly took the present from Velvet and said, "You know what? I changed my mind; the little princess here has a point. I'll just take a peek and throw it away as soon as I see how ugly it is."

Cardin rapidly ripped through the package paper and looked inside the box. His smug expression instantly disappeared as he took out its content to reveal a large brown sweater with a white silhouette of a bird on the back. Confused, Cardinal gave Velvet a silent look that demanded an explanation.

"Uh, I heard that you usually can't find a lot of warm clothing your size, so I took one from a store the other day and knitted the cardinal into the back. Do you like it?"

Surprisingly, Cardin really liked it because he was getting sick of wearing the few winter clothes that he had in his room. Unfortunately, Cardin saw his teammates watch him, as if they were expecting him to do something that will hurt the Faunus's feelings. He did just that by pushing Velvet into Weiss before he shoved the sweater back into the box.

"You know, this looks way too nice for you to give to anyone else or be thrown away. I'll use this to stay nice and comfy while all of you animals can go back to your caves and hibernate the winter away."

Walking back to his dorm with his teammates following behind him, Cardin disappeared amongst the crowd while Weiss helped Velvet back to her feet. Worried for Velvet's well-being, Weiss asked, "Are you alright? Did that big oaf hurt you badly in any way?"

Shaking her head, Velvet said, "I'm alright, I'm just glad that he likes it. It would have been terrible if he didn't accept it, since he's one of the few people I know who can wear a sweater of that size."

While Weiss disagreed with Velvet's attitude of the situation, she did make a good point. Weiss expected the school bully to do something worse to Velvet than what he did. Maybe the gift did slightly affect him for the better.

Deciding that it's something not to think too much about, Weiss turned her attention back to the Faunus and said, "Well, for whatever reason you gave a gift to someone like him, that was nice of you. But I'm guessing that the small box has something of greater value that you want to give to someone else, am I right?"

Nodding her head, Velvet took out the other wrapped box and said, "This is a pendant that looks like a sun. I'm going to give it to someone later. I just hope that it suits him just as much as the sweater suited Cardin."

"Is the gift for that monkey, Sun Wukong?"

Velvet looked up at Weiss, surprised to hear that the heiress knew who the gift was for without asking her. Weiss smirked as she saw this and said, "Having a pendant whose shape has the same name and that expression makes it way too obvious on who you want to give that gift to."

Turning around to go back to Blake, Weiss finished with, "I think he'll like it. He may be rough, but even he can appreciate a thoughtful gift, especially when it comes from someone like you."

As she left behind a blushing Velvet, Weiss noticed that Blake was giving her a big grin while her ears wiggled in plain sight. When she stood in front of Blake, Blake said, "That was nice of you to support Velvet like that. Did you have a change of heart about the Faunus?"

Shrugging her shoulders, Weiss said, "Not really, I still dislike the White Fang, but you and Velvet have been the only decent ones that I've met so far. Okay, and Sun does kind of count, since he's a good friend of yours."

Understanding and appreciating Weiss's words, Blake replied, "Well, thanks Weiss. It's good to know that you're able to see that not all Faunus are like the White Fang."

While Weiss exclaimed to an amused Blake that she would never dare to think that way again, Pyrrha and Jaune came into the ballroom and was surprised to see the event go so smoothly despite the mess. Looking around, both teammates realized they were wrong with eyes widening from an amazing sight.

"How did the Christmas tree get back up?!"

Jaune looked at a full length Christmas tree standing tall with a black ribbon tied around its trunk and ornaments dangling from the branches. He also noticed that the ballroom floor was clean, as if the mess he made has never happened.

"Wow, it's a Christmas miracle, well, at least if you still believe in things like that."

Pyrrha smiled at Jaune as he said this and replied, "We are in a pretty extraordinary school; I wouldn't be surprised if everybody else found a way to make this miracle happen."

Right as she said this, Ruby appeared with Yang and a girl with orange hair tailing her, leaving behind Sun who exchanged items with a blushing Velvet.

"Hey, there you are. You two were gone for a long time; is everything okay?" asked Ruby.

After looking at Pyrrha and then back at the group, Jaune said, "Yeah, we're fine. We just had to take care of some business. So how did you guys manage to clean all of this up while we were gone? Did you get any help?"

While Yang and Ruby gave the duo a suspicious look, the girl with orange hair exclaimed, "Why, yes! My best friend forever has been kind enough to invite me here. I was so excited that I came early and managed to help them out before the party started."

As the girl hooked her arm around Ruby's shoulders and tightened her grip, Ruby struggled to breathe, telling Pyrrha and Jaune in a strangled voice, "Y-yeah. Th-this is Penny by the way. P-penny, you can let go now!"

Pyrrha smiled as Penny let go of Ruby and said, "Well, any friend of ours is also our friend. It's nice to meet you; I'm Pyrrha and this is Jaune." While Jaune waved a 'hello,' Penny let out a bright smile with hands clasped together.

"That is faaantastic. I am always glad to make more friends. It's even great that I am friends with Nora and Ren; those two mentioned that they were your teammates and now they're off making something wonderful for the rest of us."

As if on cue, Nora came around the corner of the hallway Jaune and Pyrrha was in with a tray full of drinking glasses and a plate, which were all strangely empty. Everybody noticed that Nora was sporting a marvelous milk moustache with bits of cookies coloring the white surface.

Feeling unfazed at all by the sight, Pyrrha asked, "Nora, did you manage to make enough to share with everybody else? We agreed that you can eat the first batch of anything as long as more are on the way."

Chewing down the remains of the cookies she had in her mouth, Nora replied, "Nope, Ren has that taken care of. I'm about to go back and help him carry the rest before the kitchen staff takes over the kitchen for the Christmas dinner."

Unwilling to take the chance of Nora eating the rest of the food, Ruby turned to Penny and asked her, "Penny, why don't you go with Nora and help her bring the rest of the stuff up? You two can keep having that discussion you were having earlier."

Smiling from the idea, Penny exclaimed, "Superb, we can eat from the cookie batter and sob about our troubles in life. Ohh, and the most important subject is talking about cute boys! We can totally do that!"

Nora laughed as she heard this and replied, "That sounds like a sleepover, but yeah, we can totally do that too! But let's not talk about cute boys in front of Ren; I don't want him getting any weird ideas about him and I being together. I mean, we're not together, together cause we're friends."

While Nora tried to fix her confusing statements, she and Penny went off towards the kitchen. During this time, Jaune was enjoying the sight of the ballroom until he saw Pyrrha reach behind her and take out a box.

"Here Jaune. I got something for you too."

Taking the box and opening it, Jaune looked inside and saw a small dagger with a gold blade that shined intensely under the dim ballroom lights. Awed by the sight, Jaune slowly brought his hand down the brown curved handle, admiring its beautiful patterns and strong grip feature.

Pyrrha enjoyed the sight of Jaune's marveling at the weapon and said, "It's a dirk, I mean, a dagger. You might not always have your sword and shield, so I wanted to get you something that can help you out when you're in a pinch."

As Jaune continued to examine the weapon, he realized that there was no way that a beautiful weapon like this could have been worth any less than the coins he gave to Pyrrha. Looking up at Pyrrha, Jaune tried to not freak out about the value as he nervously asked, "Pyrrha, did this cost a lot? Because there is no way that a weapon like this would be cheap."

Sheepishly looking down, Pyrrha said, "Well, I actually made that. I went to this blacksmith tavern that I found in town and forged it there. Is it alright? I was kind of worried that you wouldn't like it, since the design might look a little weird."

As Jaune looked back and forth between the weapon and Pyrrha, he was lost at words. He never knew that his partner had such a skill, which made him realize that there was so little that he knew about her.

"_But she was worried about my opinion on the design? Forget how it looks, it looks way too good for someone like me to handle. Pyrrha should be the one to keep this. But, she made it for me. Telling her that would be…"_

When Jaune gazed at Pyrrha, he saw that her face was filled with concern, probably thinking that Jaune's lack of response meant he disliked it. Realizing that it was better if he just took it, Jaune closed the box and looked up at Pyrrha.

"This is, wow, I can never imagine that you would give me something this great Pyrrha. Thank you, I'm sure that this gift will come in handy someday. Considering my luck, I'll probably have to use it soon."

Pyrrha looked relieved as her face relaxed and let out a smile. As she rubbed her fingers over the coins in her hands, she said, "We're both going to be in the same situations, which is why I'm glad that as you have my blade, I have your luck for our future encounters."

Silence suddenly erupted between Jaune and Pyrrha as they realized that their words moved each other's hearts. Their newfound feelings suddenly made them feel sensitive towards each other, which is why they took a small step back to cool down the heat forming on their faces.

"_Wow, is it just me or is it hot? I mean, I felt normal when I saw the dagger, but when I heard that Pyrrha made it for me, it's just really nice of her to do that. It kind of makes me happy that she did all of that for me."_

"_Calm down Pyrrha, it's just a couple of coins that can help you cross into the afterlife. Oh, never mind that, Jaune got these for me as good luck charms! There's no need to have these feelings when I know that!"_

As both teammates were deep in their own thoughts, they never noticed that Yang hung over them a mistletoe tied to the pointy edge of Ruby's scythe. Using one arm against the head of her annoyed, struggling sister, Yang used the other arm to shake the makeshift stand and yell out, "Yoo hoo, guess what's hanging over you?"

Jaune and Pyrrha looked up only to instantly look away as they blushed from the sight of the mistletoe. While Pyrrha looked down and twiddled her fingers, Jaune looked at Yang and exclaimed, "Is that really necessary?"

Yang only nodded her head and continued to shake the scythe as a signal for the two teammates to do the deed. Unfortunately, Ruby managed to break free of her sister's grasp and instantly jump on top of her, which formed a dust cloud full of flying fists and feet.

"Give me back my scythe! It's not an object that you can use for something like that!"

Unable to hold onto the scythe, Yang dropped it to the ground while she yelled, "I'm trying to win a bet here! Let go, or you're going to make me lose a couple of lien!"

Watching the struggling sisters made Jaune and Pyrrha laugh, forgetting about the heat caused by the recent moment. Looking down at the fallen mistletoe, Jaune said, "Wow, to go this far just to make us do that? That would have been-."

Jaune couldn't finish his statement as he felt two warm lips make contact with his cheek. He knew they were lips because his mother used to kiss him in the same way, but he also realized that they were not his mother's.

Slowly turning around, Jaune saw that Pyrrha had a finger over her lips, evident that she had just used them. While Jaune's mind tried to comprehend what just happened, he managed to hear Pyrrha say, "Merry Christmas Jaune. And let's try to keep an open mind for the future. That is, if you're okay with that."

Before Jaune could say a reply, Pyrrha already walked away while continuing to play around with the coins in her hands. As he watched Pyrrha's retreating form disappear into the dark hallway, Jaune looked down at his own present and smiled from the thought he just had in mind.

"_Merry Christmas Pyrrha, and thanks for helping me make it a good one. And I guess we can keep an open mind because I really am okay with that."_

**When people are willing to give to another, they pass on a joy that fills each other's hearts. And with that joy, a person can find that tis truly is the season to be jolly, especially when you can be so with your loved ones.**

* * *

A/N:

Again, happy late holidays everybody. Hope all of you received gifts for the year; even people like Cardin should have something nice every once in a while to continue the spirit of giving, right?

The coins seem to fit Pyrrha because both of their origins come from the same cultural background, so that's my reason. I didn't cover additional descriptions, like how the coins need to be placed over the eyes, because I didn't want to go too much in detail. And yes, I got most of the details from watching Troy and the Pirates of the Caribbean, so I hope there's not too much criticism getting ready to hit me for that.

For anybody curious about Sun's situation, I actually don't want to set anything in stone yet. Whether he became a student of Beacon, is still waiting for the tournament, or is hanging out somewhere else is up for debate. That's why he's still in this kind of 'vagabond' state, moving around and appearing where he's able to go to.

I realized that one scene that I wanted to add in might ruin the flow of the story, so I added it after this like an after-credit scene. I would like some feedback on this kind of story writing method, so please review and/or PM about it.

* * *

_Several minutes before the Christmas event_

"Darn it, I should have known that Pyrrha would go off after Jaune. Now we're one person short of fixing this mess."

Weiss sighed as she said this out loud where everybody could hear her as they were cleaning up. While using a broom to sweep away some crushed baubles away, Yang looked up and smiled as she an idea came up in her head.

"So, do you think she went off to kiss Jaune under a mistletoe or something?"

Not expecting such a random comment, Weiss rapidly turned to Yang and exclaimed, "Now why would Pyrrha of all people go after him for such a stupid reason rather than help us cleanup this humiliating mess?!"

Shrugging her shoulders, Yang said "It's just a guess…well, I might have some lien riding on a bet that they'll just go bananas on each other when they're in the right mood."

Unsettled to hear her sister do such a thing, Ruby asked, "Who would you bet with on something gross like that?"

Nora, Ren, and even Blake raised their hands in the air, and Ruby had a suspicious feeling that Sun might have been on it too if he was here.

Nora giggled as she did this while Ren nonchalantly replied, "They've been giving small signs for months. I said it'll take longer than that for them to go any further." Blake nodded in agreement, showing that she made her bet for a similar reason.

Not appreciating the random conversation, Weiss exclaimed, "Okay, back on task people! How are we going to fix the tree? We don't have time to go out and get another one from the forest."

The answer to Weiss's question came around the corner of a nearby hallway in the form of a familiar humanoid cyborg.

"Salutations friends. Thank you for inviting me; I'm ready to eat cookies, drink milk, and send presents to all of the good children of the world."

Laughing from hearing this and at the sudden arrival of her friend, Ruby said, "No, Penny. That's Santa; we're supposed to be the ones who gets the presents. And it's nice to see that you made it." While she laughed, Penny looked around and noticed the large mess on the ballroom floor.

"Do you need any help, friends? I would be delighted to offer you my assistance."

Everybody turned and stared at her, unsure of what someone like Penny would do in this situation. Knowing Penny the best out of everybody else, Ruby managed to nervously ask, "Are you sure? You're a guest here, so we wouldn't want you to feel responsible for doing this."

Penny stretched her arms in the air as she replied, "It's not a problem; I may not be combat-ready, but I am more than capable of salvaging the mess!"

Penny summoned her swords from her back compartment and shot two of them into the ceiling above her. While she reeled herself up, she used her remaining swords to drive them into the broken pieces of the tree, surprising those who didn't see her fight with the White Fang. Soon, the tree slowly rose up with Penny's ascension and was placed upright in the middle of the air.

Using this chance to make some needed repairs, Blake walked towards the risen tree and took off her black bow. As her cat ears came into view, she jumped towards the tree and used her after-images to speed around it in several circles. After she landed back on the ground, Blake turned to see her handiwork of a black bow tied around the broken part of the tree.

Happy to see that the tree is intact, Penny slowly let down the tree back to the ground. Right as she did this, Weiss let out a sight as she said, "Well, if we're going this far to fix the tree, then we might as well do everything right. Ren, Nora, Ruby, and Yang, please stand over here. I have an idea on how to put the ornaments back on the tree."

Although they were confused on how she would do this, every person that Weiss called went over to the spot she was pointing at. Taking out Myrtenaster, Weiss pointed the tip of the blade to the ground as she revolved its chamber.

Soon, a glyph appeared under the group and shot them, along with the ornaments, high into the air. Weiss swung her weapon in the direction of the Christmas tree, which made everybody levitate in that direction.

"Woo hoo! This is a fun idea; we get to put the ornaments back on the tree as we fly!" shouted an ecstatic Ruby. As she grabbed an angel statue and placed it on a branch in mid-air, she twirled her body around in a circle.

Nora looked like she was having a better time, as she laughed with an arm already full of ornaments. Placing one arm in front of her in a superman pose, she exclaimed, "Look out world, cause here comes Nora Valkyrie, the angel of the battlefield!"

"It's nice to see that you're having fun, but remember that I can't hold this position for long!"

As Weiss tried to maintain the glyph to keep the levitation intact, everybody else continued to grab the ornaments and place them on the Christmas tree. Soon, Weiss released the glyph from exhaustion and everybody managed to land feet first back onto the ground.

By the time everything was said and done, the Christmas tree was back to normal. Although its appearance was the same as before, Ruby's eyes sparkled as she thought it looked even better after seeing how everybody pitched in to help fix it.

Turning to her friends, Ruby said, "Woo hoo, we did it! We are ready to get this party started!"

Right as she said this, she saw Penny walk up to her with a small present in her hand. As Ruby accepted the present, Penny happily said, "Here you are, it's a gift to my best friend. Open it, open it!"

While Penny jumped up and down from excitement, Ruby opened the box and saw a red bow inside it. Taking out the bow, Ruby examined it, unsure of what she was exactly supposed to do with it.

Happy to see open the present, Penny exclaimed, "See? You have a bow just like me and Blake! Now we can be ribbon buddies; maybe we can form our own team if we ever find someone who also has a ribbon!"

Although Ruby felt slightly weird from Penny's statement, she still appreciated the gift. It might even come in handy for something that she would need for sometime later in the future. When Ruby turned to see that everybody was looking around the ballroom and relaxing from their recent chore, she realized that there were two people that Penny have yet to meet.

"Ren, Nora, come over here! I haven't introduced you to Penny yet!"

Ren and Nora headed to Ruby's location and was greeted by the sight of the sword puppeteer. Looking between the two partners and Penny, Ruby said, "Penny, this is Nora and Ren, one of my friends here at Beacon. Ren and Nora, this is the new friend that I told you about a while ago."

Smiling widely during the introduction, Penny said, "Oh, new friends! My name is Penny, and I am very delighted to meet you!"

Nora strangely mimicked the same action and said, "Hello to you too, I'm Nora and my silent compadre here is Ren! It's nice to meet you!"

As Penny chatted away with the ecstatic Nora and exhausted Ren, Ruby saw her sister come over and place an arm across her shoulder.

"So sis, does this look like a pretty good holiday? Dad was pretty worried when I told him that we're staying here for the holidays."

Looking around, Ruby smiled as she enjoyed the sight of all her friends enjoying each other's company. Even if there wasn't much family time, Ruby felt satisfied from the time she spent with both her one family member and friends.

"Yeah, it's not so bad. In fact, this has been a pretty good Christmas for the both of us. I can't wait for the New Year's festival!"

* * *

**A/N: *Sight* planned three New Years chapters, here I come. See all of you next week and enjoy the remainder of December.**


	4. New Years Part 1: Lasting Wishes

New Years Part 1: Lasting Wishes

(**Disclaimer**: Monty Oum and Roosterteeth own everything in RWBY that is on here. I only own the plot involving such elements.)

A/N: Happy New Years everybody. When relations between Humans and Faunus are still bad, some others who were caught in between can't help but wish that the relationship can get better.

(This is one of the chapters that gave me a headache to write since there are so many meanings typed down, so please PM or review if something doesn't make sense. Also, the planned 8000 got jacked up over 9000, so apologies for so many words.)

Before you read the story, I want to apologize for the lack of one description about Halcyon Holidays. I noticed that I like to refer back to some events in the past chapters because, well, that kind of writing style just appealed to me along the way.

I still intend on making the chapters, aside from the ones in series, as separate as possible, but this entire story is not really a one-shot series because of what I do. But things like Snow Aquarius and the Faunus game from the Thanksgiving chapter is planned to be omitted unless I want to continue it like next year or if Volume 2 comes out and gives ideas for them.

* * *

**New Year's wishes are different from resolutions. **

**That's because when you wish, you carry on a hope that it can exist until it becomes a reality.**

New Year's is about to arrive for the city of Vale and every year, the people take the time to have some kind of festival to celebrate the occasion for several days. Stands, parades, and other events litter the city as it welcomes the coming of a new year.

The festival also involves the tradition of a theme that its attendees need to follow, probably to add some liveliness to the festive atmosphere. Some themes from the past focused on specific types of events that were held and costumes that people wore when attending the festival.

However, this year's theme was a little unusual because a certain headmaster suggested that they do one based on self-reflection. It's confusing, but it was eventually explained that the theme allows everybody to come to the festival wearing clothes of their choice. The two rules to this are that the clothes must never contrast with their personality and not be related to their casual wear.

With these rules in mind, everybody came to the festival with different kinds of clothes and costumes that they wouldn't wear on normal occasions. Even non-Faunus attendants wore Faunus costumes, which is why the real Faunus were able to attend the event with some amount of toleration. It's in this kind of situation how Sun was able to walk the streets and enjoy himself in the festive atmosphere.

"_Man, it's good to walk on the streets like this, but it's kind of lame too. The Vytal Festival is still not here and there's not much to do by myself; I might as well snatch a snack from one of these stands."_

Sun's tail heeded his command and stretched out to nab a bag of popcorn from a nearby stand. When it brought it to Sun, Sun unconsciously took it and started to eat it by handfuls as his mind kept running with thoughts.

"_Hm, I wonder if I'll run into someone from Beacon. Maybe I'll get to see Velvet here. It's been several days, but I'm still curious to see how she's doing. _

When he turned around a corner, his eyes widened in surprise as he saw Velvet getting a stick that had a ranch-covered carrot at the top. Smiling to see the welcome face, Sun threw away the popcorn bag over his shoulder and approached the unsuspecting bunny Faunus who just turned towards his direction.

"Yo, enjoying the carrot? If you don't mind, then I'd like a bite."

When Velvet heard this, she instantly jumped back in surprise. When she saw that it was Sun, who laughing from the sight, Velvet frowned as she retained a firm grasp over her stick.

"Sun, you startled me! A greeting would have been nicer than startling me!"

As his laughter died down, Sun replied, "Well, if I do that, then it wouldn't be as much fun. Do you see me as the type to make something boring by doing that?"

Velvet's pout curved up into a smile, more glad to see a familiar face than agree with what he just told her.

"You're right. And it's nice to see you again, Sun. Are you here to enjoy the festival as well?"

Now walking beside Velvet down the street, Sun replied, "Eh, they say it's a week-long kind of thing, so I wanted to see if it's nice. So far, it sure is. I mean, I get to relax without running into some Faunus haters and see you…wait, what are you doing out here alone? Aren't you part of a team or something?"

Finishing her carrot and dumping the bare stick into a nearby trash can, Velvet replied, "I wanted to see the festival with my teammates, but they couldn't make it today because of personal reasons. I just finished my homework for the break a while ago, so now I'm out here, enjoying the festival and wearing this for the theme."

Sun looked down and was shocked as he just noticed that Velvet was wearing a red velvet dress attached to a pleated knee-length skirt. With the black dress shoes, it looked a little over casual, but nice to see and very much in-tune with her name.

"_And I see that she's wearing that red ring over her finger. Very glad to see that she still likes it."_

"Well, that's a fitting outfit for you. I never knew that you were the type to buy something really nice for any occasion."

Velvet slightly blushed from the compliment and looked away, hoping that Sun didn't see it. However, Sun did see it, but he was more enticed by her rosy cheeks than the meaning behind them.

"Actually, I kind of made this on my own and since I don't have anything else to match the theme, well, this is really all I had. Yours clothes seem to be a better fit. Did you bring that over from where you came from?"

Looking down at his clothes, Sun examined his yellow martial arts gi that had black lines on most of the edges. Reaching down, he took the two ends of his black belt and shot them forward to tighten it around his body.

"Oh, this? Naw, I borrowed it. They had some extras in that one store that I passed by earlier today, so I thought I could just take it off their hands until the festival is done."

Never seeing Sun as the type who would steal things, Velvet smiled and said, "Well, it really does fit you. It matches your look and you seem pretty strong, well, at least that's what Blake said when she told me about your skill in battle."

"Oh, you mean when I use these babies?"

Sun reached for his back and took out his two gun chucks. Forming them into his staff, Sun twirled it above his head before slamming one end into the ground. He let out a smile when he saw that Velvet was impressed by the sight, probably because this was the first time that she saw him use any weapons.

"So, since you're free for the rest of today and the other guys from Beacon aren't around, why don't we take the time to enjoy the festival together? We can have a good time between the both of us. Just don't count on going to too many of these stands; they're just a bunch of scams that ask for too much lien."

Velvet smiled at the invitation and was just about to answer when a voice interrupted, "Excuse me sir, but are you interested in the fighting event?"

Turning around towards the new voice, both Velvet and Sun saw a man in a detective costume approach them. Curious about what he just heard, Sun asked, "The fighting event? There's one like that around here?"

Nodding his head, the man replied, "Yeah, there's one around that corner hosted by several people who think they own the place because nobody was strong enough to beat their first fighter. If you win, then it might help settle things down and you get to show what you're made of in front of a crowd."

Although Sun was interested in the fight, he just shook his head and walked away while replying, "Sorry, but not interested. I'm just here to enjoy the festival with my friend."

Undeterred by Sun's departure, the man continued, "Of course, there's a prize if you win. You can get a free pass to all of the stands for an entire day, and the pass can extend to one other person. That sounds like it's worth something, isn't it?"

Sun froze when he heard the words 'free' and 'entire day' reach his ears. The offer got his full interest when the man also mentioned that the prize can extend to anybody who wants to join him. This might help with his dilemma of how much lien he can spend to have a fun time with Velvet.

With this goal in mind, Sun turned to the man and asked, "So, can you tell me again where I can find this place?"

* * *

"Step right up folks, prove your strength by fighting against our three fighters. If you can beat them, then we will present this wonderful! All you have to do is pay up some lien, and you'll be ready to rumble until someone tumbles!"

Sun rolled his eyes at the sight of the announcer making his speech in the middle of a huge wrestling ring surrounded by a small crowd of people. Looking around, he saw three people nearby that fit the descriptions of the 'fighters' of this event.

Needless to say, they didn't look all that impressive. Even if it is a bit arrogant for thought, Sun knew that he can take care of these guys without much trouble.

"Are you going to be okay Sun? They seem kind of tough and…it would be terrible if you hurt yourself before you had a chance to enjoy the festival."

Sun turned to Velvet and smiled as he saw that she was truly concerned for his well-being. Reaching for the ropes in front of him, Sun replied, "Hey, just watch me. I'll wipe the floor with these guys. Just worry about which stand you want to see before I get done with this fight."

With that, Sun jumped over the ropes and went into the ring, approaching the announcer who just noticed his arrival. When he was close to the announcer, Sun threw him a piece of lien. The announcer managed to snatch it from the air and look it over as his lips curled upwards from excitement.

"Well, well. Ladies and gentleman, we have a young confident volunteer over here. Mind telling us your name, boy?"

Crossing his arms, Sun replied, "Sun Wukong, and I'm here to win the prize for the free festival run, so let's get started right now. I want to enjoy it as much as possible today."

The announcer's smile grew wider as he saw the only person who showed such fighting spirit all day. Looking back to the crowd, the announcer shouted, "Did you hear that? Our bright and cheerful fellow here wants to get the fight going right away to enjoy the prize he has yet to claim! He may sound cocky, but let's give him a big hand for also being the bravest out of the previous contenders!"

As the audience clapped while the announcer left the ring, Sun smiled as he appreciated the nice introduction that the man has given him. The smile never left when he saw a muscular man wearing a white version of his martial arts gi step into the ring.

"Get this fight going right away? Kid, you must be asking for an early trip to the hospital if you want to start so soon. I'll teach you to be this cocky when you're facing the guy who's been making all the KO's in the previous fights."

Sun rolled his eyes as he heard this and got into a fighting stance along with his opponent. After several seconds passed, the announcer outside the ring shouted, "Ready? Begin!"

Using his fists, Sun blocked each punch and kick that the fighter shot after he literally jumped at him. As another fist shot out, Sun quickly blocked the punch and slammed his own fist into the man's face. The man's body fell back and hit the ground, unmoving as Sun's strike was strong enough to render him unconscious.

After Sun pulled back his fist, he noticed that the entire crowd fell silent, staring in unbelief at the fighter who held the former record of being undefeated. A moment later, they cheered loudly, excited to see that someone actually got past the first round.

Sun enjoyed the cheers and waved his hand at the crowd around him. When he saw Velvet clapping for his accomplishment, he winked at her as his smile grew wider.

Suddenly, the sound of two swords clashing against each other made Sun turn around to see a man in a military suit walk towards the center of the ring. After he placed his swords to his side, the swordsman said, "Somewhat impressive, but let's see how you do against weapons."

As Sun reached his towards his back and took out his gun chucks, the announcer to the side shouted, "Oh, and look at that folks! Now we have ourselves here a weapons match! Will our new challenger come out unscathed, or does a person who is not me need to step in and prevent Mcribs the Butcher from slicing him up?"

The audience fell silent again, shocked to hear that the violence of this event rose up beyond their expectations. Velvet felt most of the tension, as she now had to witness her friend fight against a man who could possibly chop him into pieces.

"Are our fighters ready? Then tear each other apart!"

Sun was the only one who wasn't surprised as he faced his opponent with weapons at ready. After thinking, _"Really? This guy is going to chop me up," _he let out a yawn to express his boredom. The swordsman suddenly dashed forward and slashed at Sun with his two swords. However, Sun merely flicked both wrists and had one end from each gun chuck intercept the strikes.

"Did you just yawn in the middle of a fight? A little runt like you should mind his manners!"

Sun didn't reply as he continued to block the incoming slashes. After blocking several strikes, Sun spun his gun chucks and unleashed four blasts that shot the swords out of the swordsman's hands. The swordsman instantly froze as he became defenseless, allowing Sun to claim his victory after he slammed one part of his gun chuck into the side of the man's head.

After seeing Sun take out his opponent with such ease, the crowd cheered even more wildly than before. Velvet, in the meantime, let out a breath of relief as she was glad to see that Sun was alright.

Sun saw this when he turned around and thought, _"Almost done. As soon as I beat the last guy, we can-."_

Sun's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a weapon ejecting something towards his location, which made him immediately somersault out of the way. A millisecond later, a sharp spearhead dug into the spot where he was last standing. Sun got up and turned to see a huge man in a suit of gray armor stand seven feet tall and hold an iron shaft that retracted the spearhead back into where it launched from. Sun couldn't see because of the huge knight helmet covering the face, but he could tell by his actions that he was really angry at him for some reason.

"Wa-wait, Sir Grayman! You're supposed start after I make the call! If that hit him, then it would have resulted in your disqualification," shouted the announcer.

The giant knight didn't respond as he aimed his spear at Sun's position. In a cold steely voice, Sun's new opponent said, "You have no idea what kind of trouble you're in," just as the spear exploded and shot the spearhead towards Sun.

Sun rolled out of the way and made a mad dash to Grayman, using this opportunity to attack the weaponless knight. Sun twirled several shots from his gun chucks into the steel armor, but the shots only left behind small burnt marks that barely did any damage at all.

Grayman threw a steel-covered fist at Sun, only to miss as the monkey Faunus ducked and rolled away again. Right as he got up, Sun saw that the knight had his spear back in place and at his side, ready to make a wide swing at him.

"You should have given up when you had the chance, squire. That arrogance may as well lead you to your defeat."

Grayman swung his lance so hard that it created a small gust of wind that slammed into the audience in front of him, the same one that Velvet was in. As Velvet tried to keep her eyes focused on the fight through the blinding wind, she didn't see any sign of Sun in the ring.

"_No, Sun!"_

However, when the gust died down, Velvet saw the monkey Faunus hanging upside-down with his tail out of his pants and grabbing onto a part of Grayman's armored arm.

With a huge smile, Sun said, "Ha ha, you couldn't hit a turtle with a swing that slow," in a taunting voice. This successfully made the knight shake in anger and launch his balled fist at Sun. Sun's tail immediately let go and dropped his body to avoid the blow. After landing, Sun stepped in front of Grayman's body with gun chucks slowly gaining speed as he spun them.

"You know, a weapon that huge can't really hit me when I'm right here. Let's see how long that armor can keep you standing."

Sun then let out a barrage of blasts into the armored knight as he spun his gun chucks in a whirl of fury. As Sun continued the chorus of shotgun blasts, Grayman's body shook as some of the blasts hit him in his unprotected parts, like his chin and the joints in his armor.

Unwilling to go down without a fight, Grayman lifted his spear into the air and aimed the spearhead down at Sun. After activating the weapon, the spearhead shot forward towards Sun's head with enough force that would leave a nasty mess if it ever connected.

It's good that it never did as Sun twisted his body out of the way while throwing his two gun chucks into the air. Jumping up and off of Grayman's arm high into the air, Sun grabbed his two gun chucks and formed his staff. Right as he came back down, he slammed his staff onto Grayman's head, which unleashed a huge yellow blast of energy.

Grayman groaned as the final blow made him crash down into the ground and remain still as his spear dropped and rolled outside the ring. When Sun landed on the ground, the announcer shouted, "Amazing! Did you see that folks? This human, I mean, Faunus's onslaught was so devastating that even Sir Grayman, under all that armor, couldn't handle it in the end."

"Therefore ladies and gentleman, I hereby give you the first and perhaps last winner of this event for the day, since our fighters may be unable to take on anymore challengers for a while!"

As Sun looked around with tail now waving behind him in the air, he once again saw that the audience was silent. This time however, it seemed a little more uncomfortable than the last time they did this. Suddenly, one guy shouted, "Hey, that guy's a Faunus! You let a dirty animal like him fight against humans?! He could have killed them!"

"Yeah," shouted a woman. "I could see a human from Beacon do something like this, but this is just wrong! Some freak like him shouldn't be even in a competition full of human fighters!"

As more of the audience voiced their displeasure after realizing that Sun was a Faunus, Sun's vision started to turn white as he became angrier by the situation. It wasn't just the insults that got to him, but he was hearing them coming from the same audience that was cheering him on just a few minutes ago.

The announcer also felt uncomfortable as he saw that the event was going to come under fire if he didn't do something about it. When he heard someone tell him something from his earpiece, he slowly walked up to Sun and got his attention after tapping his shoulder.

"Well, we do allow Faunus in the ring. However, due to unfair circumstances, we can't hand you over the prize. Sorry about that, but great fight today."

When the audience heard this announcement, they started to calm down after thinking that this was fair. However, Sun's frustration reached its peak as he heard this and angrily asked, "What?! I won this fair and square! You can't just say that the moment I beat up three of your strongest guys!"

Sun grabbed the announcer by his collar with one hand and lifted him up into the air. As he felt his other hand curl into a fist, he barely heard the announcer say, "Please, let go of me. I just work here; there's no need to take your violence out on a guy like me. You've done a pretty good job with those other three guys."

Too angry to even think about his actions, Sun pulled back a punch and was about to wallop the announcer until he felt a pair of arms stop his own arm from moving. Looking over his shoulder, he saw that it was Velvet, who was pulling back his arm with all of her strength.

"Stop it, Sun! If you do this, then you'll give everybody more of a reason to be afraid of you! You're better than that, so please, let's just leave this on peaceful terms!"

Sun calmed down when he heard this and slowly placed his fist down. Looking back at the announcer, Sun growled, "Well, whatever. I'm out of here," and released his grip. As Sun walked off of the ring, Velvet soon followed after apologizing to the announcer for any trouble that they might have caused.

After the two Faunus walked far away from the ring, several people from the audience were mumbling about what just happened. One person could be heard saying, "Yeesh, you see that? Animals with no form of self-control at all, typical."

* * *

"Thanks for listening. It would have been terrible to see that you got into any more trouble, and most of it wasn't your fault to begin with."

Although he was still angry about what had happened, Sun calmly walked beside Velvet, who has been trying to cheer him up since she left with him from the fighting ring.

Sighing and running a hand through his hair, he replied, "Well, you did have a point back there. Punching someone in front of those losers wasn't worth it. But really, those are the kind of people who need to make a New Year's resolution to change, or I'm not the only Faunus out there who'll have an issue with them, you know?"

Velvet slowly nodded her head as a fellow Faunus dealing with the usual discrimination. Hoping to talk about a different topic to get his mind to cool down, Velvet asked, "Speaking of New Year's resolutions, do you have one that you want to make for this year?"

This question worked much better than Velvet planned as she saw Sun's frustrated look shift into a nervous one. Scratching the back of his head, Sun said, "Eh, I don't really…I mean, I guess there is one that's kind of been bugging me. But…naw, it's nothing."

Now curious to see what could make Sun react like this to such a simple question, Velvet said, "Is it something that you want to keep to yourself? If it is, then you don't have to say it." Although Velvet meant to say this for Sun's sake, all it did was make him more willing to tell her.

"Well, I mean, I don't have much of a resolution. Well, okay, I think it bothers my friends that I tend to 'borrow' more times than I should, so I might try to tone that down a bit."

Sun tried to not look at Velvet's ring as he said this, worried that she might link her Christmas present to this statement. But again, Velvet still couldn't imagine Sun ever taking something illegally and thought he was referring to another issue.

"Well, borrowing has always come with a degree of trust. As long as your friends can trust you, then you won't have to worry too much about it. At least, that's what I think."

As Sun heard this, he felt relieved to see that Velvet hasn't made the connection to his previous thefts. However, it also made him feel too comfortable, as if his delinquent actions did bother him more than he realized.

"_Crap, was I really bothered by what I do? I mean, yeah, Blake gets onto me about taking stuff, but it's not bad when nobody is going to care about the little things."_

Sun just decided that he shouldn't think too hard on the situation. Shrugging his shoulders, he said, "That makes sense; not everybody can expect to find me to be a perfect guy. So what about you? Do you have a resolution that you made for the year?"

As Velvet heard the question, she slowly spun the ring around her middle finger as she tried to think of a way to answer Sun's question.

"It's not really a resolution for myself, because I'm alright with who I am so far. Instead, I wish that relations between the Faunus and humans get better. It would be nice to get along with them like we do with my other classmates at Beacon."

Sun felt a small admiration as he heard this come from the soft-spoken Faunus, but it also didn't sit very well with him.

"Eh, that doesn't sound too bad. But if you think about it, it's kind of pointless to have that kind of wish if people haven't changed, I mean, we did have that one huge war back then."

Velvet felt saddened by Sun's remark as she thought that a fun-loving person like him would support her own wish. Yet, it seems that even he was pessimistic about human and Faunus relations.

"_And he's not the first one who said something like this. Most other people that I've told this to…even my own teammates."_

"But it's never terrible to have a wish like that. I think it's a marvelous that a beautiful woman like Velvet can think of something so fantastic for the new year!"

Velvet and Sun turned towards each other to see a familiar orange-haired human standing right there between them. Both Faunus jumped back from the random sight while the figure kept her huge smile plastered on her face for both to see.

"Whoa, Penny! What are you doing here?!"

As she turned her head back and forth to look at both Faunus, Penny replied, "My friends couldn't make it because they're all stuck at Beacon dealing with their responsibilities. My time here is limited, so I thought I could look around and see what makes this event so spectacular."

As both Faunus tried to recover from their shock, Penny looked at them in confusion, not realizing that her sudden appearance in the middle of their conversation had startled them. When Velvet looked at Penny, she noticed that the strange being was also wearing a costume for the festival.

"By the way Penny, is that your choice to match the festival's theme? It seems…"

Smiling widely, Penny exclaimed, "Do you like it? Now I am truly combat ready!"

Penny raised her hand in salute as she stood straight up in her black jumpsuit. Horizontal green lines were seen along the clothing, except for the part that ended at the edge of Penny's black heels. Penny placed the black visor on the top of her head over her eyes, which had large green eye glowing in the middle of it.

While Sun thought the entire outfit looked cool, Velvet felt slightly intimidated after Penny brought her visor down, which looked even more terrifying with a smile. Trying to find the right words to describe her, Velvet said, "Um, it looks…pretty sophisticated. The green bow shows that you're following the theme, but the visor seems-."

"Totally awesome," exclaimed Sun. "It really does look like you're ready to kick butt!"

Penny smiled when she heard this and exclaimed "Yes sir! Private Penny reporting for duty! Tee hee, I said doodie."

While Penny laughed at her own joke, Sun looked at Velvet and shrugged, indicating that even he didn't take the joke as much as his sense of humor would allow. Turning to a different direction, Sun slowly said, "Well, Velvet and I are heading this way because it looks like there's more fun stuff to do over there. Where are you going?"

As soon as Sun asked his question, Penny suddenly stopped laughing as her face became downcast, saddened by the thought of her answer.

"Oh, I don't know. Since my friends aren't here to hang out with me, I guess I'll wander somewhere else. I should try to view the entire festival while I still have time. It was nice meeting the both of you again. I'll…see you around."

As Penny slinked away in a different direction, Sun turned around and got ready to go on his way with Velvet. However, Velvet didn't move as she seemed to be the only one who saw that Penny was feeling lonely from the lack of her usual company.

"Um, Penny. Would you like to hang out with us? We can all enjoy the festival better if we hang out together."

Sun faced Velvet in surprise from hearing this while Penny immediately rushed back to give Velvet a crushing hug.

After she released the hug and faced Velvet, Penny exclaimed, "Sensational! We'll have the best time together, friends! Let's go; I saw a shooting gallery over near that corner that I just arrived from!"

While Penny pulled Velvet with their arms linked together, she used the other to grab Sun by the back of his shirt and drag him in the same direction. While Sun tried to regain his footing, Velvet sighed, thinking that she may have gotten into something that was too much for her to handle.

* * *

"Amazing, I never knew that your skill with a prop rifle is on par with when you use your own weapon. Are the techniques similar in some way?"

While Sun finished taking down one target with his last bullet at the shooting range, he turned to look at Penny, unable to tell if what she said was meant as an insult or a real question. Sun couldn't choose an answer as Penny suddenly came over and took the item from his hand.

"Alright, it's my turn next. After that, we can go and enjoy the sweet taste of cotton clouds from that stand over there."

While Penny paid the stand owner the lien to start her own turn, Sun walked over to the bench Velvet was at and took a seat next to her. Turning to face him, Velvet said, "You almost got some of the targets. It's too bad that you need to hit all of them to win any prizes from this stand."

"_Yeah, or arrest the guy who thinks gluing them in is the best way to scam people out of their money."_

Shrugging his shoulders, Sun remained silent as he gave a blank stare into the air. This sight of the monkey Faunus made Velvet feel concerned enough to ask, "Sun, are you alright? You've been kind of out of it ever since we left the fighting arena. Are you still bothered by what happened?"

Sun didn't answer right away because even he didn't have an idea of why he was acting like this. Thinking back on what happened since he met Velvet, he realized that one factor may be affecting him.

Sighing as he faced the ground with eyes closed, Sun replied, "It's just this whole day. I thought you and I could hang out together and do something fun. But so far, we had to get our prize taken away from us because we're the hated Faunus and now we're babysitting robo-girl over there."

Pointing to Penny who was still shooting at a target that didn't budge, Sun continued, "I mean, she's cool when she's fighting, but it kind of gets awkward around her, you know?"

Velvet's nodding head satisfied Sun as he leaned back with both arms behind his head. While he closed his eyes, he heard Velvet stand up from her spot and take several steps away from the bench.

"It's strange, though. Do you think our view of Penny is the same as when people view us? I mean, as Faunus of course."

Sun's eyes immediately opened and stared at Velvet as his mind just took in what she just said. Unsure of how to answer this, Sun just replied, "N-no way. She's alright, but we could be doing something better than hanging out with her."

With arms crossed behind her back, Velvet said, "Perhaps… yes, perhaps it would have been better with just the two of us. But when I saw her look so sad when nobody was here to be with her, it kind of reminded me of back when I first started in Beacon."

Sun sat straight up as Velvet continued to speak, unsure of why a sad tone was in her voice.

"I couldn't always hang out with my team members, so I was usually alone. This made me seem like a prime target for unpleasant things, like bullies and snide remarks that I had to deal with on a daily basis. All because of my Faunus heritage."

Turning to Sun, Velvet said, "Thinking about it…yes, I guess that's it. You were right Sun, maybe…having that New Year's wish isn't necessary after all. Besides, what chance does someone like me have of ever making a life here in a human settlement?"

Hearing this made Sun realize that something might have been bothering Velvet for a while, but he was too dense to realize it sooner. It was even more obvious when he saw Velvet's teary eyes and sad smile, and he couldn't find the words to say anything about it.

Bringing a hand up to her eyes, Velvet said "Oh, I-I'm sorry Sun. I honestly don't know where that came from. I'll…I'll just go and keep Penny company for a bit. Yes, I'll do just that."

Velvet continued to walk away towards Penny, leaving Sun to be alone on the bench. Unsure of what just happened, Sun put his hands over his face, hoping that he could think of something that made sense of this.

"Hey, are you a Faunus?"

Looking up from his hands, Sun turned to see a young child dressed in a yellow robot costume approach him with a drink in his hands. While the child slurped the contents through a bendy straw, he continued to stare at Sun, waiting for the answer to his question.

Too distracted to care about what the child thought about Faunus, Sun replied, "Yeah, I'm a Faunus. What's it to you?"

With eyes now widening from the answer, the child said, "My mom and dad said that you guys are monsters, but you look as normal as my older brother. Why would they ever say bad things like that?"

Moving his tail to where the child could see it, Sun pointed at it and said, "If you can't tell, I have this that makes me one of those 'monsters' you talked about. If you've seen enough, scram. I'm not in the mood to listen to your trash talk."

The child didn't listen as he continued to watch the tail sway back and forth. Sun was about to tell the kid to leave again when he suddenly heard him excitedly say, "Wow, that is so cool! You can grab stuff with that tail, can't you?"

As the child moved both hands up in excitement, the drink in his hand fell from the loosened grip. Sun was able to see this and shoot out his tail fast enough to catch the falling beverage. Raising it up in front of the child, Sun retracted his tail after the excited child took the drink back into his hands.

"Whoa, it's like an extra arm! I wish I had something like that; I could do so many awesome things with it, like-!"

Sun smirked as he heard the child exclaim about the other things that he would do if he had his own tail. Before he knew it, he started liking the kid as he never heard of someone ever wanting to be a Faunus before.

Suddenly, the excitement from the child's face went away as he asked, "Hey, do you think I can hang out with other Faunus? They might be different, but it's just by looks, isn't it?"

Sun's eyes rapidly blinked as he heard this question come out of nowhere. Curious to know where it came from, Sun asked, "Why do you want to ask me? Isn't that something that you should ask an adult?"

The child sadly shook his head as he said, "I don't know. Most of the people I know always say bad things about the Faunus. I'm kind of sick of it, especially when I know a girl who had these awesome-looking wolf ears come out of her head, like this. It's actually kind of cute too."

While the child raised his fingers next to his head to imitate the ears, Sun lightly laughed, not expecting the child to sound so silly after hearing his serious explanation. As the child put down his hands, his face fell along with them with eyes now focused on the ground.

"It's getting harder to meet her because…well, my parents don't like it when I hang out with her. Arguing that she's dirty, smelly, and ugly doesn't really help when she's the exact opposite, you know?"

"But when more people keep telling me these things, I get scared because I don't know how to see her anymore. I'm afraid that someday, I'll never look at her as I do today, especially if what they say is true. I mean, is that going to happen? We're going to eventually hate each other because we just look different?"

When Sun heard this question, Velvet's New Year's wish suddenly came into mind. Thinking hard on why this would happen now, Sun suddenly remembered what Velvet said just moments before he met the child.

"_You were right Sun, maybe…having that New Year's wish isn't necessary after all."_

At that point, everything slowly started to make sense. Velvet's insistence on keeping Penny company, why Velvet was sad during their talk on the bench, and why the words that came out of Sun's mouth made him realize that he wanted to apologize to Velvet.

"Of course you can! You can hang out with guys like us because we're still human! We're not all that people say we are; we can have fun, take care of each other, and be there when it matters to most."

"Sure, we have a Faunus group out there like the White Fang do some terrible things, but not every Faunus are like them. Some of us actually want to live a good life and enjoy events like today without worrying about who's a human or a Faunus. So don't let people stop you from being with your friend, because she might be one of the best things that will happen in your life."

The child stared at Sun in surprise, showing that he wasn't ready for this kind of response. As Sun kept his own gaze strong, the child suddenly let out a big sigh as a big smile suddenly appeared on his face.

"Okay, that sounds cool; I already knew that the White Fang are jerks. I just wanted to know if it was still a good idea hanging out with someone different from me, but what you said makes sense."

Suddenly, a loud whistle rang in the air which made the child and Sun look around to see where the noise was coming from. When they both gazed at the front of a nearby stand, they saw a girl wearing a brown cloak make another whistling sound with her fingers.

Turning back to Sun, the child said, "Well, thanks for talking to me. I, uh, was kind of waiting for that girl I told you about to meet me here. We're going to see the rest of the festival before my parents know where I am, so see ya!"

Sun was dumbfounded as he watched the child run off to meet up with the girl. Truly, this child was full of surprises, especially when it sounded like he was losing his friendship with the very same girl that he was meeting with right now.

As he watched the two kids walk away, Sun heard small footsteps approach him. When he turned around, he saw that it was Velvet, who was holding some kind of toy behind her back. After looking at each other in brief silence, both Faunus simultaneously said, "I'm sorry," and looked at each other straight in the eye as they realized what they just did.

Deciding to go first, Velvet said, "I'm…sorry for acting strange back there. I mean, today was kind of an off day for me too, but I didn't want that to show while we were trying to enjoy the festival together. Can we forget what happened and try again? And if it still bothers you, then we can separate from Penny after we go by two or three more stands with her."

Velvet's entire statement surprised Sun, who realized that she was taking the blame for his irritated behavior from earlier. Unwilling to let his friend do such a thing, Sun placed a hand on her shoulder, which made Velvet say, "Eep," from the sudden contact.

"You're just too nice, you know that? Not only are you dealing with an idiot like me, but you're also trying to deal with the pain that you had to go through alone. I'm sorry Velvet, and I'm also sorry that I had to ruin your day because of me."

Sun's serious tone and expression confused Velvet a bit because she never saw this side of the monkey Faunus until now. Yet, his sincere words made her feel better, as if it was something that she needed to hear.

"Th-thank you Sun. I'm not saying that it's your fault in any way, but what you said makes sense. It even makes me glad that I heard it coming from you, despite how unusual it sounds."

Laughing from hearing this, Sun said, "Well, it's no problem. And, I don't want to say that I believe in it, but that wish of yours isn't really bad to have. Just always know that if there's anybody out there who's going to ruin what we already have with the guys from Beacon, then let me know and I'lll do something about it.

As Sun took in the sight of Velvet smiling from hearing what he said, he almost didn't notice Penny who nearly ran into him with a giant plushy doll in her arms.

"Hey, what was that for?"

Penny's head popped from the side of the doll and smiled as she saw Sun and Velvet were right where she last saw them at before she was blinded by the doll's huge figure. Placing the doll onto the ground, Penny placed her hands onto her hips.

"Winning this doll from that strange shooting gallery filled with super glued steel targets is my gratitude for your hanging out with me today. Usually, Ruby's the one who takes care of me during the social gatherings, but the two of you have been just as wonderful as my red-hooded friend."

As Penny said this, Velvet looked at the giant doll up and down before saying, "We can't accept this. It's great that you managed to win the game, but you earned the right to have it for yourself."

As the two girls lightly argued about ownership over the doll, Sun smiled from this lively sight as he thought, "_Okay, maybe this isn't as bad as I thought it was. She's weird, sure, but really, what hasn't been weird ever since I got here."_

Sun smiled when he saw that Velvet was laughing from something that Penny said out loud.

"_I guess it's just something I have to deal with in order to meet someone like her, and I'm totally fine with that."_

In the middle of the conversation, Penny suddenly exclaimed, "Oh, I forgot to get the cotton cloud! I'll be right back; I want to have that delectable treat before we continue onwards!"

Penny's sudden outburst made Sun remember about losing the prize, which also served as a reminder of his lack of lien. Sun felt embarrassed by this as he turned to Velvet.

"I'm sorry if there isn't much else we can do here. My stack of lien is a bit low and…well, I'm not really into the mood of 'borrowing' any more things for today."

Shaking her head, Velvet said, "It's fine. We don't have to stay here all day; you can come back to Beacon with me and we can get something from the cafeteria for free."

That actually sounded alright for Sun. He could just hang out with Velvet the rest of the day, even if it wasn't at the festival.

"_But bummer, this festival only comes like one time every year. That prize sounds really good about now."_

Sun felt someone tap his shoulder and turned to see that it was the announcer from the fighting event. Before he could ask him what he was doing here, Sun saw him shove a colorful piece of paper with two blank lines into his hands.

"Look, we need to give this pass away, and I thought it was kind of unfair for what we did to you back there. Here, enjoy your day with your girlfriend and thanks again for the fight. And personally, I didn't mind you showing up those fighters back there; they were being jerks to everybody all day long."

Sun noticed that he said 'girlfriend' and tried to correct him, but the announcer ran off before he could say anything else. Sun didn't really care as much as trying to deal with the shock of having the prize handed to him so suddenly. Velvet, who was watching the entire scene, smiled from this fortunate sight.

"Congratulations Sun, it looks like you did win the prize after all. Now you get to enjoy it what you deserve."

"It's not just me, but the both of us deserved it."

Sun turned to a confused Velvet and pointed at one of the blank lines on the pass. Smiling, he said, "I won this for the both of us, and now we can do what we planned all day. And let's not try to worry about the whole 'human vs. Faunus' crap."

Velvet understood and happily nodded her head as she was happy to hear this. While Sun turned the paper over, he suddenly remembered that he forgot about their other compatriot.

"Wait a minute, we can only add one more person with this pass. Maybe you and Penny can…hey, where did Penny go?"

* * *

While Sun and Velvet looked around for Penny, Penny was in a car that drove away from the festival grounds. Penny grasped the hand of her giant plushy doll and squeezed it tightly, happy to have a reminder of her first New Years festival.

"So Penny, was the festival alright," asked a mysterious voice from the driver's seat.

Nodding her head, Penny happily replied, "Yes sir. It was wonderful and I got to make more friends in the process." The voice didn't immediately respond to Penny's statement, pausing as if he was pondering about a different subject.

"Good, but remember that you were only here to observe, just like the other times that you hung out with those children. When the time comes, you should be sure to put the data you collected to good use."

Nodding her head, Penny replied, "Yes sir," in a monotone voice. Looking back at where Velvet and Sun was at, Penny let out a sad smile as she saw that her momentary happiness ended with her departure.

* * *

The boy in the robot costume from earlier was now eating an ice-cream with his wolf-eared friend, who was walking beside him. While he enjoyed his treat, he heard the girl ask him, "Hey Huang, who were you talking to back there? Was he another Faunus like me?"

Nodding his head, Huang replied, "He's a pretty cool Faunus, Pap. I wished you had a chance to talk to him about stuff like I did."

Angrily turning to the boy, the girl said, "I told you to call me Paprika! Why do you keep calling me by that nickname?!"

The boy tried not to choke on his ice cream as he was laughing from hearing the same amusing question that repeatedly answered.

"Ha ha, it's fitting, you know. I mean, it sounds easier than your real name, especially when we're eating together. Can you imagine me always saying, 'Paprika please,' every time I want to spray it over my egg sandwich?"

The girl only huffed as she went back to eating her treat. After taking several more bites, the girl sadly looked at the stands that they passed on their way around the festival.

"After today, let's not meet up with each other anymore. I heard how you got into another fight with your parents about me. It'll be better if we just split up sooner than later like my dad suggested that we do, right?"

After taking another lick of his ice cream, Huang said, "Eh, I don't care. We're friends, so we should keep hanging out with each other."

The sudden reply made Paprika pause from taking another bite and turn to see Huang just casually continue eating. After several seconds of silence, she asked, "What has gotten into you? Isn't this the part where you freak out about this rather than be calm?"

Now feeling angry at the unusual sight of her friend, she ended up exclaiming, "I'm trying to tell you that we shouldn't see each other anymore!"

"And I'm saying that we should keep on being friends. I mean, what are my parents going to do? Ask the police to arrest you and your family when all of you did nothing wrong?"

After he ate the remaining pieces, Huang turned to Paprika and said, "We already made it this far as friends. I don't see why we have to end it now when we still like each other. Do you get what I'm saying?"

Paprika did get what he was saying and felt a weird happiness from hearing this. As her wolf ears moved up and down from this feeling, she smiled and decided that she might as well follow his lead.

"O-okay, thanks Huang. Yeah, let's always be friends, no matter what happens."

Huang returned the smile as he exclaimed, "Yeah, and someday, I bet we'll find more people who can make relationships like us, don't you think so?"

As they passed by a girl wearing a red hooded cloak, Paprika nodded her head and said, "Yeah, maybe that can be like a New Year's wish. Let's hope that we can make more friends along the way, both humans and Faunus together."

**There's no point in wishing if all you can do is think about it. But when the wish reaches the hearts of others, it brings it one step closer to becoming a reality.**

* * *

A/N: Sorry for the long notes, but I wanted it here to explain the details of this story. PM or review if this is annoying to you readers.

So this is the first part of the three chapters because I realized that I was somewhat of an idiot when I didn't do the same descriptions for the two Christmas chapters. With that in mind, the three chapters will be related, but they'll also be entirely separate stories at the same time. Hopefully, this makes sense later on.

I meant to make this story shorter, but after I envisioned the fight scene, I just wanted to describe it so bad, especially when Sun has only been in one fight in the first volume. Hopefully, we'll see a lot of Velvet action when the time comes as well. Although, I get the sneaky feeling that she might be fighting on the wrong side for some reason; call it a retarded hunch on my part.

And the thing about Sun and Velvet in this story is that…well, I can't say that they're in anything too romantic up to this point. It's a work-in-progress, much more difficult to analyze than the obvious Jaune/Pyrrha and Nora/Ren pairings. But if this story goes far enough, then it can make it there someday.

**References**

-Velvet's clothing is just something that I put together when I thought of her name. Since her outfit won't be revealed until later, I thought I could get something that can represent her name well.

-I was tempted to use the thing that Bruce Lee wears for Sun's costume, but that seemed a bit redundant, so I stuck with something simpler. Also, with Sun's current situation of coming to Vale without much belongings, I think it's the best he'll be able to knab without getting into too much trouble.

-Penny, well, she was a bit of a mess for me. I was thinking of Kosmos (Xenosaga), Nu-13 (Blazblue), and Upgrade (yeah, the alien from Ben 10) when I wanted to describe her. When I got fed up with focusing on one of them, I tried to put it all together into one costume. Really wish I could draw this, but sadly, I'm no artist.

-'You have no idea what kind of trouble you're in': This quote came from Roosterteeth's O'Malley when he was in Tex's body and the other times that I can't really remember, aside from when Carolina faced the entire army of Tex clones. Great show by the way, and again, Monty directed the animation for that.

-Sir Grayman: I was thinking about color names again, and this came up when I thought of the manga, D-Gray Man, after a fellow author, xXHawkeye1337Xx, posted a new story up. Also, the character design is based off of the General class from Fire Emblem, which I hold no rights to say I own it. Hopefully, this helps with the imagery if anybody couldn't form it while reading it.

-Huang and Paprika: Huang is, I think, the yellow yolk in Chinese while Paprika is the red spice. Another cover of the RWBY naming rule.

**Big shout-out to koryandrs. I appreciate your reviews and I hope you've enjoyed and will continue to enjoy the stuff I've put out there.**

Also, another bonus scene for those of you who enjoy it. Please let me know if you like this and I will try to focus on making more of these later.

* * *

"Excuse me sir, do you mind if I try this game again?"

The stand owner looked up from the floor as he was picking up the cans that Penny managed to hit just moments ago. Thinking that he could score more lien in the process, he said, "Sure, but don't push your luck. I already gave you a small prize because there were two of you pretty faces, even if one of them had those freakish ears on her head."

Penny didn't take the comment well as she heard the man just insult her kind friend. Penny was having fun with Velvet, and she wanted to make it up to Velvet and her boyfriend, Sun, before she had to take her leave soon.

Looking at the targets, Penny understood that some were attached to the boards under them, which was probably part of the challenge that she needed to somehow overcome to win the big prize. However, the toy weapon in her hands wasn't powerful enough to knock them off, which gave Penny an idea on what she could use.

"Is it alright if I use something more appropriate? This weapon doesn't have the sufficient ammo or power to meet the standards for achieving the objective."

Sitting down on a nearby chair, the stand owner said, "Sure, whatever. You can use a gun or anything, but you'll have to pay triple for the use of real weaponry." When he saw Penny hand him the amount of lien he asked for, the owner smiled and counted them as Penny took a step back away.

As he counted the lien, the stand owner thought, "_Wow, look at all this lien. ____Glad I took the precaution to make the targets super-glued and out of steel_. She's never going to have anything strong enough to take down all of-."

Penny took out her swords from her back and made them spin in a circle in front of her. After a green ball of energy formed at the middle, Penny pulled her arms back and thrust them forward to unleash a green beam of energy at its target.

The stand owner saw this and immediately vacated his spot, narrowly dodging the beam as it incinerated the entire stand into nothingness. As the beam disappeared, the stand owner watched in horror as his only way of doing business in this festival was no longer operational.

Penny came over and picked up a huge plushy doll that managed to come out unscathed from the blast. As she heaved the doll into her arms, she turned to the stall manager and said, "Thank you for the prize. I hope you enjoy your day and have a Happy New Year's."

After Penny walked away back to her friends, the stand owner looked back at the smoldering remains of his business. Scratching his head, he stood up and started to walk back home.

"_Yeesh, New Year's resolution; never try to pull a scam like that again, especially with a weird lady like that one."_

**A/N: Imagine how many people can change when they experienced this kind of situation. **


	5. New Years Part 2: Work in Progress

New Years Part 2: Work in Progress

A/N: After several days, Team JNPR is ready to be a part of the New Year's festival. While Jaune wonders about his progress at Beacon, a new challenge awaits to test Team JNPR as a team.

I am truly sorry for making the chapter this late. I had to deal with New Years holiday party and laziness; I mean, I want to enjoy my break before I go back to college. Maybe doing three chapters was a bit much after all.

Also, I miss working on 'Arriving at Daylight' and its companion story, 'The Best of Times, The Worst of Times,' which is making me distracted from finishing this story from time to time.

One thing that I would really like to know is whether or not people have been bothered by my inability to post these chapters before or on the day of the holiday. Please PM or review about this, because I will do my best to accommodate for the time I post these if it has been a bother. I might even start cropping the amount that I do down to one chapter per holiday.

* * *

**A student who is unable to learn does not make the desired progress**

**And without progress, what is the value of going through their venture?**

Today was the third day of the New Year's festival and everybody was still attending to celebrate the occasion with apparels that get different by the day. Team JNPR is now ready to join the festival as they find the free time to excuse themselves from their assignments at Beacon.

"_Okay, just keep calm. It's fine wearing something like this; it's not too bad if you want to look like a knight in shining armor, right?"_

Jaune tried to calm his nerves as he continued to walk with his gray armor parts clanking with each step. While he adjusted his gauntlets, he turned around a corner and headed to the brightly-lit town square, where he agreed to meet the rest of his teammates.

They could have come together a few hours ago, but last minute responsibilities forced them to just meet at the festival when they got there. Jaune could see that he wasn't the last as he saw everybody except Pyrrha standing in front of a fountain. Looking at Nora and Ren, Jaune felt slightly surprised from seeing their choice of wear for the evening.

Jaune could tell that the costume Nora was wearing something meant for battle, especially when he saw a thin coat of chainmail cover the arms that the short sleeves of her blue dress couldn't reach. She even had a red cape flowing behind her back and a winged silver helmet on her head shining brightly under the moonlight. With all of these clothes plus the white skirt that she was wearing, Nora looked ready to cause some havoc.

Ren, on the other hand, seemed to be wearing an orange version of his previous attire, with the flaps of his suit now closed by the clasps that ran in a horizontal line at the middle of his body. The suit's sleeves were also short, but the long sleeves of his black undershirt covered the arms all the way up to his wrists. This, plus the long black pants and slippers, gave Ren a similar, yet different, look compared to what he usually wears.

Walking up to the duo, Jaune said, "Hey guys, good to see you here. Did you have to wait too long?"

Ren merely shook his head while Nora said, "Nay, comrade Ren and I have just arrived as the sun has taken its slumber for the day. We planned our assault for the current evening, and I say some churros and whack-a-Grimm can quench my hunger for today's grand event. Comrade Ren here wishes to see the forgery where fellow ironsmiths have come to sell their metal."

Nora's dialogue sounded a bit out of place than her usual one. Looking to Ren for an answer, all Jaune saw was a shrug with a look saying, 'I don't know as much as you do.'

"_Nora might be role-playing as whatever her costume is supposed to represent. It's kind of weird though; must be a family thing."_

Shrugging off the thought, Jaune asked, "So have you two seen Pyrrha? I thought she was going to get here before I did."

Both teammates shook their head, which made Jaune worry a little for Pyrrha. She's usually someone who likes to be on time, so what would happen to make her arrive later than everyone else?

Nora suddenly raised her head and looked past Jaune. Smiling, she said, "Hark, there is our fearless lieutenant and…whoa, you need to see this Jaune."

Nora's temporary fall from her act made Jaune turn to see what could make her do such a thing. When he saw Pyrrha, he almost didn't recognize her after his eyes met with what he thought was an image of beauty and grace.

Taking a closer look, Jaune could see that it was actually the same Pyrrha as he always knew her to be. However, changes like her untied hair and addition of lipstick made it seem hard to recognize her at first because Jaune never thought she was ever interested in changing her looks.

The tubular purple garment that Pyrrha was wearing was tight enough to show a figure that Jaune didn't mind as much as the other guys who was giving her looks. One guy even managed to bump into a wall because he was too focused on staring at Pyrrha. The dress, however, wasn't long enough to cover the purple heels that she was wearing, which made soft clacks that Jaune could hear as she made her way to the team.

"Hi, I'm really sorry for being late. Putting on this dress took longer than I thought it would take," said Pyrrha as she pulled on one of several flaps of her dress. Jaune slowly shook his head and scanned Pyrrha again with the details now closer for him to see.

"_Wow, does her hair look like that when it's down? It looks like I'm looking at a waterfall! And…is that perfume? No wonder she smells nice. I wonder if…whoa, bad thoughts bad thoughts. Keep it together Jaune, you're supposed to be a team leader and friend, not like one of the guys who was eyeing her up!"_

"Wow Jaune, staring a little too much at a nice view?"

Jaune looked beside him to see Nora grinning at him while Ren had an eyebrow raised at him. Frantically snapping out of his thought, Jaune exclaimed, "W-well, it's just that she's wearing something really nice is all. I mean, you look really nice in that Pyrrha."

Smiling as her leader directed his comment to her, Pyrrha said, "Thanks, you don't look so bad yourself, Sir Arc."

Nora came up beside Pyrrha and said, "Yeah, I saw several guys try to wear the same thing, but yours actually looks pretty cool Jaune. Did you make the whole thing?"

Jaune looked down to examine the gray armor parts that were attached to his forearms, chest, and legs. Under those armor parts was the blue jumpsuit he wore, which made his attire seem less burdensome than a person wearing a full set of armor all over their body.

"It's actually a hand-me-down from a different line of my ancestry, mostly from my father's side; my mom just sent it to me today. Apparently, someone used to rule a kingdom with a famous sword and shield, whose names kind of escapes me. I think it was something like Excarrier and Avion; can't really remember."

Jaune turned to Pyrrha and asked, "So what kind of dress are you wearing? I've never seen anything like that before."

Looking down at her dress, Pyrrha said, "Oh, it's something that apparently came from some old culture that had this as a regular fashion. I got it back when I had to attend an after-party for one of the tournaments. I know, it looks kind of lame. I'm actually a bit embarrassed to wear this, but there wasn't much else I could wear to fit the theme."

"D-don't be, I mean it looks really nice, I mean appropriate since…It looks nice Pyrrha," stammered Jaune.

Even as Nora whispered, "smooth," and Ren just shook his head after hearing Jaune's fumble, Pyrrha didn't seem to mind as she gave him a smile. After all, she was used to her leader acting a little nervous from time to time, which is why the words that formed his compliment mattered to her the most.

While Jaune looked down in embarrassment from his clumsy act, he noticed that Pyrrha was wearing something around her wrist. Looking closer, Jaune saw that it was a bracelet holding onto two golden coins that he recognized to be his Christmas present.

"_She kept those things? I haven't seen them since the time I gave them to her at that Christmas party."_

Jaune was about to mention the trinkets when Nora interrupted with, "Alright you two, save the merry interaction for later. We must make haste and strike fast if we are to plunder the goods that this merry festival brings; onwards to the churro stand!"

As Nora got back into her earlier act and skipped away with her cape flowing behind her back, Ren followed her while saying, "Just one is enough Nora." Both Jaune and Pyrrha laughed as they also followed their teammates, now ready to enjoy the festival together.

* * *

"To those who wish to see my wonderful monsters up for display, I welcome you all for this is my monster gallery!"

Team JNPR was walking and eating their churros when they heard this announcement boom in the area. Looking to the source, they saw that it was coming from Professor Port, who was wearing red overalls over his white shirt. He was surrounded by cages that had red eyes and snarls coming from behind the iron bars.

As the team walked up to the professor, Pyrrha said, "Hello Professor Port. Is this all of the captured monsters that you've been telling us about in class?"

Professor Port turned to Pyrrha and said, "Why, Miss Nikos, a pleasure to see you as well. And although it's not all of them, these are most of my collection of monsters that I've made throughout the past year. Have a look and feel free to ask any questions that you have about them."

As Team JNPR took a closer look, they could see all kinds of Grimm inside the cages. A Boarbatusk, Ursa, and even a small King Taijitsu were seen acting in a violent manner to escape their prison. However, one cage got the attention of the entire team as only its huge red eyes could be seen inside it.

"Um, Professor Port, I can't really see anything else in this cage. What Grimm is behind this one," asked Jaune as he wearily looked at the cage.

"Why, it is a mighty Thorus! This Grimm is not one you need to take lightly, for it was indeed a worthy foe when I went out to hunt this one. It is so dangerous that I had decided to name it Monster 4, a title and number that I only bestow onto my most difficult captures."

"Thorus? I don't remember talking about that in class. What is it Professor Port?"

Turning to Jaune, Professor Port happily said, "Why, I am glad you asked. This Grimm is saved for a future lesson, but I am always willing to teach an eager mind about it. So blah blah blah." And from that point on, that's all everybody really heard for twenty minutes until Professor Port finished with, "Blah blah tricked it, making it run into a hole. Thus is my tale of how I tamed this wild beast. Any questions?"

Nobody really wanted to ask a question at this point because they didn't expect another one of Professor Port's blackout lessons to be given on the spot. However, Jaune surprisingly stepped up and asked, "I kind of noticed that the Grimm's size looks smaller than what you said in the story. Did you do something with the cage to shrink it or something?"

Raising an eyebrow from the question, Professor Port said, "Why, Mr. Arc, I see that you have been listening to me. Yes, after blah blah blah, the cage was designed to restrict its movements. That is why the only way to free it is by pulling the lever up at the top over there."

Following Professor Port's finger, everybody could see the lever that he was talking about sticking out of the left side of the cage with a sign above it saying, 'Do not pull under any circumstances.' As soon as they read it, Professor Port's face darkened as he said, "Never open the cage. It's tightly shut to keep all of you safe from it, never the other way around."

The dark expression disappeared as Professor Port turned to Jaune and said, "And Mr. Arc, I am glad to see an improving student such as yourself is able to enjoy this festival after all of your hard work. In all my years, you are the few who I could truly say is making the most improvement out of the other students."

Waving his hand, Professor Port said, "Well, this is really all the time I can answer questions because it looks like there are other people wanting to view my collection. All of you have a great time in this festival and prepare to be vigilant in class when the break is over."

As Team JNPR walked away, Pyrrha looked at Jaune with a wide smile on her face and said, "Wow Jaune. Did you really listen to what he said the whole time? I didn't think anybody was prepared for a lesson like that."

Jaune nervously smiled as he replied, "N-no, I wasn't paying attention either. I was asking because I kind of remembered that your notes from his class said that most difficult monsters that he faced are huge. So yeah, it's nothing impressive."

"Well, the professor knows that you've been working hard to improve. I'm just happy to see that someone has finally acknowledged you for your hard work."

While Jaune just nodded his head at Pyrrha, he couldn't help but feel bad as he knew that he wouldn't have made it this far without Pyrrha's help.

"_Oh well, it's not a big deal. I mean, Pyrrha was willing enough to help me after all. It's not like there's anything to worry about, right?"_

While Jaune and Pyrrha continued to talk, Ren noticed that Nora was still struggling with taking a bite of her churro ever since they got the treats from the stand. Now concerned after seeing Nora resort to breaking the stick in half with no success, Ren asked, "Nora, is everything okay? It looks like the churro is giving you more trouble than it's supposed to."

Continuing her struggle, Nora said, "Nay, comrade Ren. This mighty treat is perfect for my hunger. Once I am done, I shall digest not only the food, but also the victory from conquering this worthy foe."

Nora was using both hands at this point to break the churro in half. When that didn't work, she opened her mouth wide and slammed her teeth into the food, only to pull back when it sounded like she just bit into metal. Now frustrated, Nora threw the churro into the ground and took out Magnhild from the back of her dress in its hammer mode.

"Nora, wait!"

Ren's warning never went through as Nora slammed her hammer down onto the churro. When Nora pulled its trigger, the hammer gained more speed right as it made contact with the ground, creating a huge cloud of dust in the process. After lifting the hammer back up, Nora looked at the cracked ground in horror from seeing that the churro was somehow still in one piece.

"Oh ho ho, this churro is truly an enemy I must vanquish. With my next strike, I shall smite thee with the might of the raging thunder!"

Nora smirked as she took out three yellow Dust shards from the inside of her dress. After loading them into her hammer, she raised it into the air again and got ready to pull the trigger until Ren shot out a hand and wrapped it around the shaft.

"Nora, you should probably not do that. We'll get you something else to eat later."

As Nora looked at Ren, she also noticed that Jaune, Pyrrha, and everybody nearby were nervously watching her. Sighing as she put her hammer away, Nora said, "I apologize comrade Ren. I shall yield for now, but this isn't over! In the next cycle, your kin shall face the fury of Nora Valkyrie!"

Nora picked up the churro and angrily threw it far in the direction behind her. Ren sighed as he shook his head and walked away with Nora happily following him. However, they never noticed that the flying churro somehow reached all the way to the cage that the Thorus was in.

The churro smacked the lever at the top of the cage on its way down, making it turn to the other direction. With a soft 'click,' the gate of the cage slowly opened and a moment later, a large snout peeked into the open with two puffs of hot air filling the air in front of it.

* * *

After walking for some time, Team JNPR realized that there were some things that they wanted to cover quickly before the day was over. Deciding that it's better to split up to save time, Jaune and Ren went towards one place while Nora and Pyrrha went to the other.

At one stand, Jaune was trying to throw a baseball through one of the rings that were laid out on a wall far in front of him. Ren stood at the side, sipping a soda, and shook his head as he saw Jaune fail again at throwing a ball into another ring.

Jaune, frustrated by his performance, took out another lien as he said, "Another go," to the owner. A moment later, another box of balls was set in front of Jaune, ready to be thrown for Jaune's third go at the game.

After he took another sip, Ren looked at Jaune and said, "Jaune, if you're bad at this game, maybe it's time we pick another one. We can always go join Pyrrha and Nora while they're at the whack-a-Grimm game."

As Jaune threw another ball and missed, he said, "I need to try one more time. I really want to get that prize before I meet Pyrrha again." Ren sighed as he heard this, knowing that Jaune was going for the tiger doll that was worth more points than what he was able to score so far.

The entire effort took Jaune twenty minutes, and the boys are supposed to meet the girls in the next ten minutes. Ren wasn't really angry for spending time at this stand since he got a drink along the way. Also, he was wondering about something and Jaune's attitude now seemed to prove his earlier suspicion.

"Jaune, let's be honest here. Why did you have me go with you to this part of town and ask the girls to go to the other part of town? I think Pyrrha was looking forward to spending time with you and I'm usually in charge of damage control with Nora on the loose."

Jaune froze right as he was set up to take another swing. Putting down his arm, Jaune quietly said, "Oh, is it that weird? I guess it is since we rarely do that, huh?"

Scratching the back of his head, Jaune tossed the ball in the air and back into his hand as he tried to think on what to say to Ren. This made him feel ridiculous as he thought, _"C'mon, I already had this planned out. Just say it already!"_

When he was ready, Jaune said, "I was kind of thinking that I can talk to you about something. I can't tell Pyrrha about this because, well, she might get offended by what I have to say. Do you mind hearing me out?"

Ren's silence made Jaune unsure of whether or not he should continue to talk. The pressure made Jaune throw the ball, which didn't even make it anywhere near the rings.

Seeing that he had only seven balls left to throw for the needed seven points, Jaune sighed as he thought that he might as well continue the discussion he was having with Ren. That is, if there was even one to begin with.

"Ever since Professor Port has been telling me that I've been improving, I've been feeling bad about it because it's not true. I mean, we're in an academy full of students like me who probably have more talent in their pinky than my entire body can carry. There has to be more improvement with them than what I've shown."

"What's worse is that some other people, like the teachers and Pyrrha, have been telling me the same thing during the past week. Professor Oobleck even said that one report was a pleasure to look at. When has he ever said that to me in the past few months that we've had him?!"

Ren raised his eyebrows as he heard this and wondered why Jaune would be so concerned about this. The interest only grew as he saw Jaune blow out air from his mouth, apparently out of frustration.

"Every time I hear something encouraging, all I want to do is tell them that I'm not getting better. I haven't been getting worse, but it's not fair to hear that when I haven't made any notable successes. My grades have barely gone up and I still can't beat Cardin in a fight. Really Ren, do you think anything about me has changed at all? Do I…am I still someone who can be the leader that all of you deserve?"

After taking a pause, Jaune finally asked, "Am I good enough to stay with someone like Pyrrha, who deserves much more than a partner like me can ever give to her?"

Jaune waited for an answer to his question, but after several minutes of silence from Ren, he felt that it was his way of saying 'no.' Sulking from the implication, Jaune turned back to the balls to continue what he now saw as a vain attempt to win the prize for Pyrrha.

"Jaune, is that really all you have to say?"

Jaune turned his gaze towards Ren, who picked up a baseball and threw it towards a ring. As the ball flew into the ring, Ren said, ""Jaune, you did change. I feel that you're the one who's mistaken when you're giving yourself less credit than you deserve."

Throwing another ball into a ring, Ren continued, "Back when we first met, I actually thought of you as someone weak; a guy who might have gotten into Beacon because of some dumb luck."

Hearing this statement didn't lift up Jaune's mood, especially when he remembered that he hasn't even told his other teammates about his forged documents. Even now, he would probably need to keep a pin on that until he was ready to tell them later.

"But my opinion of you has changed. Now, you seem like you're starting to fit into the role as you keep improving, even in small increments. You probably won't make it there by the physical expectations any time soon, but not every leader needs to be strong like that."

As Ren continued to make accurate throws into the rings, Jaune kept his attention on Ren, who seemed to be talking more than what Jaune has heard since he first met him.

"Those with great mental ability have been able to defeat even the mightiest armies with fewer numbers and strength. The ideas that you gave us during our missions and assignments showed that you have potential like that. And I don't mind recognizing you for that ability."

After Ren threw the last ball through another ring, Ren finished with, "And you have heart Jaune. It's because of that heart why you're still here and you were able to do some good things, like standing up to Cardin and sticking up for the team when it mattered the most. That's more than I can ever ask for from any other student who I might have had to be in a team with."

Ren smirked as he continued with, "Pyrrha still talks about how you were there for her that one time she, and I quote from Nora, 'magnetimbered' the big bully on Thanksgiving. Without you, Cardin might have won the fight since Professor Goodwitch saw him as the victim that time."

Jaune noticed that the stall owner gave Ren the tiger doll that he was trying to win on his own. Blinking his eyes in surprise, Jaune turned to the basket beside him, only to feel flabbergasted as he saw that it was empty. This also made him realize that Ren just won the prize for him.

"Jaune, you're not exactly the leader we need at the moment, but I'm sure that we value someone with great potential like you, at least I do. And someday, we'll definitely need you just as much as you need us to attain victory together."

Handing Jaune the tiger doll, Ren covered his mouth and coughed loudly before he took a big sip out of his drink. Jaune could only watch Ren in surprise as he heard more than he could ever ask from the quiet team member.

"_Wow, Ren actually gave me a lecture! Was it so important to say all of that?!"_

Now feeling grateful for the long comment, Jaune said, "Thanks Ren. I really didn't expect to hear all of that from you, but I appreciate every word that you told me right now."

Letting out a breath of relief after he finished his drink, Ren replied, "I like to try and say what I need to say. You seemed like you needed that from someone other than Pyrrha, so there you go."

A loud beeping noise suddenly came from Ren's pocket. Reaching down and taking out his scroll, Ren looked at the screen and saw that the timer on it has reached zero.

"It looks like it's time to go. I need to grab Nora before she eats too many sweets. Otherwise, she might go on a sugar rampage like that time we went to Sugarland together."

Jaune tried not to grin from hearing this as his imagination gave him an image on what Ren has just told him. Seriously, how can any sane person want to take Nora of all people to an amusement park famous for its sugary treats? While Jaune was unaware that he'll be on the ironic end of this thought someday, Ren threw his drink away as he walked towards where Pyrrha and Nora will meet them at.

"And to answer your other question Jaune; being concerned for Pyrrha's feelings is nice, but she deserves to hear what you've just told me since only she can give you the real answer. That way, the both of you can keep moving forward together without any doubts, right?"

Jaune actually knew that Ren was right, but he was hesitant because he didn't have the courage at the time. After hearing Ren's lecture, though, he felt a little braver and thought that doing it sooner would be better than telling her later.

"You're right. I'll try to find a way to tell her as we enjoy the festival together. I don't want to ruin any fun that she might be having right now."

* * *

"Nora, is it safe to eat as you play a game like this? You might get a stomachache this way."

Despite hearing Pyrrha's concern, Nora didn't seem to pay it any mind to it as she continued to slam her rubber hammer down on the machine in front of her. At the same time, she shoved handfuls of mini marshmallows into her mouth. Multiple pops and loud chewing noises filled the air as Nora whacked the head of each Grimm dummy that came out of the machine's holes.

"I shall not yield. Now that comrade Ren is unable to restrain my hunger, I shall gorge until not even a Behemoth can best me," laughed Nora, who enjoyed multi-tasking between hitting and eating. When the bag became empty, Nora felt a strange anger course through her, making her impulsively think of the most violent act that needed to be done at that moment.

Pyrrha looked in the direction of where Jaune and Ren were at, not noticing that Nora was slowly taking out Magnhild from her back. Just as Nora was ready to slam the hammer down with her eyes swirling from the sugar rush coursing through her veins, Pyrrha asked, "So are you sure that you heard nothing from Jaune? Nothing that might be a sign that he's in trouble?"

Pyrrha snapped out of her crazy demeanor as she heard this and looked at Pyrrha, worried to hear her ask what seemed like the hundredth time since the group broke off. Realizing that Pyrrha needed her right now as her friend, Nora placed her hammer down and decided to go back to her usual dialogue to communicate better with the worried Huntress.

"Are you still worried that Jaune wanted to check out the festival with Ren? I know that the pairing is weird, but it's nothing to really be worried about. You can always show off that dress to him when we hang out again."

Letting out a sigh, Pyrrha replied, "I guess you're right. It's just that I've been worried since…wait, show off? What is there to show off?"

Looking up and down Pyrrha's body, Nora said, "Really? That's all you have to say after you wore a dress like that? You didn't have to dress as spectacular as we did; something casual would have been nice, like that golden jacket and red shirt that we bought for you the other day."

Pyrrha stiffened as she remembered that she did indeed take Nora out to shop for the clothes that she wanted to wear for New Years. Nora laughed as she saw the look on Pyrrha's face, which served as a reminder of how they almost accidentally ran into Jaune changing into his costume earlier today.

"Ooh, remember when we saw Jaune with only that jumpsuit on today? All of that training really did pay off. Makes you wonder how much more we could have seen if we came a little earlier."

Pyrrha blushed madly as the image of Jaune's developed muscles came into mind. While Nora kept poking fun at Pyrrha, she suddenly asked, "Wait a minute, is that why you wore this? Were you worried that Jaune might have attracted some unwanted female attention, so you needed something to keep the competition away?"

Pyrrha snatched the rubber hammer from Nora's hand and lightly hit her on the head with it as she said, "Okay, there's no reason to look more into this. Can we get back to the topic at hand?"

Nora grinned as she lightly rubbed the top of her head and answered, "Sure, sure. We were talking about why you were worried about our fearless leader, so explain fast cause they're bound to be here any minute."

Sighing as she thought back on her worries about Jaune, Pyrrha said, "I'm worried because Jaune didn't seem fine since we met at the fountain and he doesn't always voice his concerns when he's in trouble. Remember that time when he was bullied by Cardin? He didn't tell us for a long while, and he almost paid the price for hanging out with those jerks!"

Knowing that Pyrrha was referring to the Major Ursa incident, Nora replied, "Would he be in any trouble right now? I think he's actually doing better nowadays. I mean, did you not see the compliments he's been getting nowadays? It's crazy that he's even made it this far!"

Pyrrha felt surprised as she heard Nora say this, never taking the cheerful girl to ever have any doubts about her teammate. Wanting to hear more of Nora's opinion, Pyrrha asked, "Is it really that surprising? I thought he was making some good progress ever since we started training together."

Nora looked away from Pyrrha's eyes and nervously had her eyes aim at anywhere but back at Pyrrha. Crossing her arms, Pyrrha grimaced as she said, "Okay, let's hear it. What do you really think about Jaune so far?"

While Nora looked at the ground and made circles with her feet, she said, "Honestly, I first thought that the guy wasn't leader material back when we started taking classes together. Sure, he's shown something during our initiation, but it was that one time out of the others where he kind of screwed up."

Nora raised her head to face Pyrrha as a small grin came back on her face. With her serious tone converted back into its happy one, Nora finished with, "But he's been pretty cool so far. I mean, after what he's recently done kind of makes you think that he's getting better. That's the kind of progress that you wanted him to make, right?"

Pyrrha smirked as she nodded her head, happy to hear that her teammate also thought well on Jaune's progress. However, she still felt dissatisfied from the conversation because she never got the answer to her earlier question.

"_So is there anything wrong with Jaune? After listening to Nora, I can't imagine that someone out there is giving him trouble. I really do wish that he would tell me rather than keep silent about it."_

While Pyrrha continued to ponder over her question, Nora took out another bag of mini marshmallows from the amazing compartment of her blue dress and eagerly devoured the entire bag. Several seconds later, the swirl in her eyes came back, making her raise her weapon and prepare to demolish the machine as the first of many atrocities that may occur today.

"Nora, is that really something that you want to do while I'm here?"

Once again, Nora shook out of her frenzy and slowly turned around to see Ren standing there with arms crossed and eyes of disappointment aimed straight at her. Putting an open hand out in front of him, he asked, "Do you remember?"

The simple question made Nora sadly lower her head and hand Ren Magnhild, who took it away for safekeeping. With that out of the way, Ren said, "Jaune wanted to switch groups, so we'll go and get you some more churros. That should be enough sugar that you should deal with today."

Nora looked up and went back into her happy demeanor as she skipped after Ren. While both Hunters went away, Jaune walked up to Pyrrha with the tiger doll in his arms. Raising the toy up to her, Jaune said, "Um, here. This is kind of my apology for being a little weird. It's not enough, but I'll make it up any way I can to you."

After taking the doll into her own arms, Pyrrha happily said, "It's actually kind of cute. I'm happy to accept this as a gift instead Jaune; there's nothing that you have to pay me back for."

Hearing this made Jaune feel unfair that Pyrrha was being patient with him about his behavior. Remembering Ren's words and his own statement from earlier, Jaune decided that now might be the time to tell Pyrrha what's been bothering him lately.

"Um, Pyrrha. It's actually fair that you need an explanation for that. You see, in the past week, I felt that..."

From there, Jaune explained to Pyrrha what he told Ren. During the explanation, all Pyrrha did was nod her head several times and make different expressions during the explanation. Jaune never saw Pyrrha look hurt or angry by what he said, which allowed him to continue until he finally finished with, "…but now, I'm feeling better. After getting some advice, I can finally accept my progress as it is. So yeah, that's what's been kind of bothering me."

As soon as Jaune finished, Pyrrha let out one more nod before saying, "I see. I can kind of see what's been bothering you. I'm sorry that I've been making it worse by being insensitive about it."

Rapidly shaking his head, Jaune exclaimed, "No, it's definitely not your fault! I just…I dunno, it kind of makes me feel bad that some guy like me is partnered up with you." In a quieter voice, Jaune said, "Maybe you should have been partnered with someone who could have helped you just as much as you've helped me."

Pyrrha suddenly shot out her fist and slammed it into the unprotected part of Jaune's arm. While Jaune rubbed the bruise from the strong blow, Pyrrha angrily said, "Jaune, don't you ever say that! In fact, why would you ever think of something like that?!"

Jaune winced as he heard her sharp tone and nervously replied, "Well, haven't you ever had the same thought? All I did was hold you back; there's really nothing else that I've done for you!"

Shaking her head as if she just heard the most ridiculous thing in the world, Pyrrha replied in a hurt tone, "You and I have been together for months now, and that's all you can say for the two of us?! It doesn't matter because I never wanted you to think that. You've done plenty for me by just being yourself."

"Really?" asked a surprised Jaune. "You're really okay with a goofball like me?"

Nodding her head, Pyrrha continued, "During that time in Emerald Forest, I didn't become your partner just by chance. I saw that you had everything that I wanted from a good partner, which is why I didn't mind when I came up to you that day."

Pyrrha's angry expression died down and was slowly replaced by a kinder one. As she placed an arm on Jaune's shoulder, Jaune felt a comforting warmth spread into him from her touch.

"Innocent, kind, a little goofy, and a warrior with great potential; these are the traits that I've seen before and during my time spent as your partner. That is something that makes you great, Jaune Arc, so never forget that."

The warmth from her touch and words made Jaune feel light, like the time that Pyrrha has used her Aura to unlock his own. In fact, the way she was holding him now made it seem as if she was doing it again, but it wasn't the same. In fact, Jaune like the bond between them was stronger, making him feel as if he had no more reason to ever doubt Pyrrha's view of him as her partner.

"_Wow, I never knew that she thought of me that way. I guess it was silly to think much less; she's always there for me, and now I need to start being there for her. That reminds me, I have to thank Ren again for his help. Man, I'm lucky to be surrounded by good teammates."_

Taking this blessing into mind, Jaune smiled and said, "Thanks Pyrrha, I really appreciate it. And I'm not saying it only for what you did now, but for every other time that you've been there for me. Yeah, then I'll keep on doing my best for the team. I'll even do it to make sure that you're proud of me as your partner."

The statement made Pyrrha feel flustered as she didn't expect to hear such a heartfelt gratitude come from Jaune. Seeing his face, Pyrrha also saw that he seemed to look more confident and strong than he was before.

"_That voice also sounds nice with those muscles…Wait, what?! What am I thinking? Oh no, I just made this awkward for me!"_

Before Pyrrha could feel more heat by her self-destructive thoughts, a loud roar suddenly cried out, causing everybody in the area to freeze from the ferocious noise. Turning in the direction of the noise, both Jaune and Pyrrha recognized that the roar came from a large Grimm, and it sounded way too close for comfort.

"Oh no, that's where Nora and Ren went to go to the churro stand. We need to get over there and help them out!"

Pyrrha, whose mind was now focused on the battle, nodded and followed Jaune as he ran towards the churro stand.

* * *

"Noooo! The churros; why must the churros be taken to the tables of Valhalla so soon?! My stomach cannot feast without the elite of all treats!"

Nora was on her knees and looking down at the bits of churros that she had in her hands. Meanwhile, Ren was nearby, keeping an eye out for the four-legged Grimm that smashed through most of the stands in their area just a while ago.

"Nora, stay focused. We need to regroup with the rest of the team."

Dropping the bits to the ground, Nora sadly said, "A-aye, comrade Ren. Let us reunite with our comrades…but that monster must watch itself; it has now incurred the indignation of Nora 'Pissed-Off' Valkyrie."

Hearing the angry tone made Ren feel unsettled about his former cheerful partner. This is one of those few moments that he's seen her angry while she had her reason intact, and that's saying a lot for his sober friend.

Dashing back to where Jaune and Pyrrha are at, Nora and Ren kept an eye out for the Grimm in the now-desolate area. After several more seconds of running, they heard a small groan coming from a nearby pile of debris. Looking in that direction, they saw that it was Professor Port trapped underneath the former remains of the stands that were around his own.

"Nora, give me a hand here. We need to free-."

Nora suddenly took out Magnhild and used it to smash off the debris with one hand, which somehow didn't harm the captive underneath it. Looking back at Nora, Ren saw that she had an expressionless face that masked any sign of the happy Nora that he's used to seeing.

In a dark voice, Nora said, "Let us hurry, comrade Ren. Tonight, the Thorus shall taste vengeance unlike any Grimm that we have faced before."

Ren nodded his head and moved in to help Professor Port. By the time the professor was up standing with one hand on his forehead, Jaune and Pyrrha arrived on the scene, scanning the largely damaged area around them.

Concerned by the sight, Jaune asked, "Wh-what could have done this? Wait, was the Grimm we heard a while ago the Thorus that you captured, Professor Port?"

As the wooziness faded from his head, the professor replied, "It's alright, Monster 4 just needs to be detained in the small steel box again. Now where is my weapon? It is time that I relive my glorious hunt!"

The indirect answer and the slight confusion in his voice made it clear that Professor Port was in no condition to fight. Realizing this, Jaune turned to Ren and Nora and asked, "Did any of the other Grimm manage to get out? And what did the thing look like? We couldn't see it on the way over here."

Knowing that Nora wasn't going to answer from her silent anger, Ren replied, "No, the other cages managed to stay intact. The Grimm, however…it looked weird. It was like a bull, but it was wearing white armor that had spikes all around it. That's how it made all these scratches on the ground."

Jaune and Pyrrha looked at where Ren was pointing and saw numerous slashes mar the ground below them. Worried by the sight, Pyrrha turned to Professor Port and asked, "Is this what you had to fight before you were able to capture it?"

Feeling better from his headache, Professor Port directly answered with, "No, but I may have been experimenting with several concoctions that altered its presence. Now, its body is entirely covered in a thick armor that cannot be penetrated through normal methods." Laughing in the same manner as an evil mad scientist, Professor Port raised his arms high as lightning somehow crackled around him.

"Professor, please focus. Is there anything that can help us stop the Grimm?"

The professor placed a hand under his chin as he pondered over Pyrrha's question. When he found an answer, he said, "Well, a Thorus is known to have a small patch of unprotected skin around the underside of its belly. That may be the only chance to do some damage, but why do you ask? Surely, you do not plan on taking this Grimm on, especially at its current level of strength? It's probably enraged by the time that it's spent in captivity in this tiny cage."

Pyrrha felt unsure on how to answer that, but she knew that someone had to stop the Grimm before it caused any more damage. Before she could say this, Jaune said, "We have to, it's our duty as Hunters. And it's important that we do something about it soon, otherwise more of the people in the festival can get hurt."

The rest of Team JNPR smiled at Jaune, glad to see that their leader stepped up to the challenge that they knew had to be done. Nora, who got out of her silent fury after hearing Jaune, asked, "Do you have a plan, Jaune? I hope you have one now, because I'm rearing to get some payback!"

Jaune turned around and gazed at something ahead of him as he said, "I actually do have one. So here's what we need to do. Ren and Nora, you two need to…"

* * *

"Abomination! You shall rue the day that you have struck down the innocent snacks; prepare to be vanquished," shouted Nora.

Nora and Ren just found the Grimm in front of a group of stands still occupied by people. When the Grimm didn't turn, Nora hefted her grenade launcher and fired several rounds into its backside. After the shots hit it, the huge bull turned to face the duo with its white mask while its body lightly shook the spikes covering its body. The Thorus growled as its eyes met the two Hunters, which meant that Nora was successful in directing its attention towards her and Ren.

With weapons at ready, Ren and Nora prepared to face the creature in order to fulfill their part in completing Jaune's plan.

"_You two need to lead it to the crowd of tents over there. That's where Pyrrha and I will make our preparations for the next part of the plan."_

The Thorus lowered its head as it dug one foot into the ground below it. A second later, it charged towards Ren and Nora, getting ready to skewer them for annoying it during the time that it was relishing its freedom.

"_But you need to give us a couple of minutes before you lead it there. It's tough, but I know that the both of you can do it."_

"Nora, get its attention in that direction; I'll lead it towards the area as soon as I'm in position."

Nodding her head, Nora replied, "Aye, comrade Ren! I shall do battle with this foul beast that dares to plague this land!" Running forward, Nora shouted, "To arms, my comrades! To arms for the motherland!"

Rolling to the side at the last second, Nora slammed her hammer along the way into the side of the Thorus's face. As Nora shot a round from her hammer to fly away, Ren trained his guns at the Thorus's face to confuse it as much as he can.

Annoyed from the assault, the Thorus bellowed as it dug its hoof into the ground. With its head lowered, it charged at Ren, threatening to overcome the Hunter with its sharp horns and protruding spikes.

Right before the Thorus could make contact, Ren jumped up and grabbed onto one of the Grimm's front horns, holding on tightly to prevent himself from getting impaled by the smaller bones in front of him. While it tried to thrash Ren off of its body, the Thorus headed towards the area where Jaune and Pyrrha were setting up the other part of Jaune's plan.

With hands out and glowing a black color, Pyrrha turned to Jaune and asked, "Are you sure this is okay? What if something terrible happens to you? You could get hurt, or worse, when you're out there."

Jaune took out Crocea Mors from his shielth as he said, "I'm actually not sure what's going to happen Pyrrha. Like you told me before, all strategies never go according to plan. However, I trust that my teammates can do it, which is why I know that we'll somehow pull through in the end."

Pyrrha smiled as she heard this and felt more determined to succeed in her own task. As the black glow on her arms intensified, Pyrrha frowned when she realized that something was wrong.

"This isn't good; the metal in this area isn't enough, so I need to gather more from the surrounding area. I just need several more minutes to do it, but I don't know if we have more time than this."

Right as Pyrrha said this, the Thorus came barging into the area and was able to throw Ren off of its horn. While Ren landed back on the ground, several loud explosions went off before Nora came in from behind the Grimm, riding her hammer. She managed to raise the weapon above her and smash the head onto the top of the Thorus's back, breaking several of the spikes there.

Jaune saw his teammates and yelled, "Guys, we need more time! You need to distract him for just a little bit longer!"

After Ren got up, he nodded at Jaune as he crossed his Stormflowers in front of his body. Two green Dust shards on each of their sides started to glow as a small wind picked up in the area. The Thorus, in the meantime, tried to buck off Nora, who was trying to hang onto her seat on its back.

Soon, Ren's body started to spin as a small tornado formed in the area around him, Nora, and the Thorus. Now surrounded by his pink Aura, Ren's spinning body shot forward and disappeared into the walls of the tornado.

The green tornado was soon filled with several pink flashes that appeared and disappeared in various places. One at a time, they shot out and left small gashes that appeared on the Thorus's body. While the Thorus roared in pain, one of the pink flashes came over to Nora, who smiled as she wrapped an arm around it. The pink flash took her high through the middle of the tornado and disappeared as Nora had Magnhild at ready.

"Let's do this, for the brave churros in Asgard!"

With target in sight, Nora raised her hammer above her as her body fell back to where the Thorus was still harassed by Ren's numerous attacks. During the fall, Nora pulled her trigger multiple times, which made her body spin forward faster from the hammer's recoil. Before she made contact with the Grimm, she pulled the hammer's trigger again to shoot the yellow Dust crystals in the chamber.

Soon, a huge ball of electricity covered the hammer head right as it descended on the Thorus's head. As the hammer crashed into the mask, a huge torrent of electricity discharged from the contact.

While the electricity flew out from the discharge, the tornado caught and filled itself with the energy. Inside the tornado, Ren directed the walls of the tornado to converge onto the Thorus. The tornado become smaller until the walls crashed into each other, then violently stretched out.

A thundering explosion rocked the air as the tornado exploded, shooting out electric and wind energy all over the area. Nora and Ren came flying out from the explosion and flew towards a pile of debris. Ren's exhausted body slammed into the debris while a dizzy Nora managed to land on her bottom while covered in scratches.

When the smoke from the explosion cleared, the Thorus could be seen standing tall and strong with no sign of fatigue. Even if the damage was evident from the numerous gashes and cracks on its armor, the Thorus only roared loudly and slammed its hooves into the ground below it. Its eyes moved to where Ren and Nora were and lowered its head to charge at the exhausted Hunters.

Before the Thorus could take another step, Jaune shouted out, "Now!" and Pyrrha, whose arms were now pitch black, threw her arms forward out towards the Thorus. Soon, a flood of metal objects shot out from the outskirts of the area and started to attach themselves to the Thorus's body.

The Thorus tried to slam the objects away with its head, legs, and the spikes. However, it wasn't enough as the objects came in a swarm, overpowering the Thorus's efforts to defend itself. Soon, the Thorus was frozen on the spot as its body became encased in a skin-tight prison made of metal supported by Pyrrha's magnetism.

As Pyrrha struggled to maintain her hold on her Semblance, she said, "I got it, but you need to go now! I can't keep this up for much longer!"

Jaune was already running forward as she said this and charged at the imprisoned Grimm. As Jaune got closer, Pyrrha willed several pieces of the metal to move from one area. There, the exposed spot that Professor Port told them about came into plain sight, which was all Jaune needed to make the final blow.

"_Here goes nothing. Like Pyrrha said, it's times like this is when I need to make only one strike count!"_

Jaune yelled as he ran faster and stabbed his sword into the spot, which made the Thorus bellow loudly from the pain. As Jaune tried to dig the sword in deeper, the Thorus's imprisoned body started to shake harder and harder.

"_C'mon! It needs to go deeper than this. What?! Why do I feel a plate of armor getting in the way!"_

Suddenly, the iron prison exploded as the Thorus freed itself with the sheer force of its power. The force made Pyrrha lose her grasp over the magnetism, ensuring the Thorus's freedom to attack again. As the Thorus moved, it swung its head down and slammed Jaune away from his blade that was still embedded in the exposed wound. The Thorus then ran up to Jaune and used its mouth to bite into Jaune's sword arm.

Pyrrha shouted, "Jaune," as she fearfully saw her leader's body shake with the Thorus's head. Fortunately, Jaune's body was glowing in his blue Aura, which was protecting his flesh from getting bitten by the Thorus's teeth . At least, for however long it can stay up.

Jaune dropped his shielth and reached behind his waist for his dagger. Sliding the golden blade from its sheath, Jaune stabbed the blade into the Thorus's eye. The sudden pain made the Grimm release its mouth, allowing Jaune to land back on the ground. Maddened by Jaune's counterattack, the Grimm raised both legs into the air, ready to crush Jaune underneath them.

Pyrrha was running towards the Grimm by this time and threw her spear, Miló, towards the Thorus's wounded eye. With one hand out, Pyrrha used her magnetism to increase the speed of the flying spear. The spear managed to pierce itself into the Grimm's eye, which made its body twist and turn away from Jaune. With her shield, Akoúo̱, in front of her, Pyrrha rammed her body into the Grimm and managed to keep the body suspended in the air.

As she struggled to maintain her position, she looked at Jaune who was picking up his shielth and said, "Now, finish it off! While I can still-"

Suddenly, the white spikes from the Thorus's body grew longer and ran through whatever was in their attack range. Jaune was able to stop several spikes by using his shielth to block the attacks. However, Pyrrha wasn't as fortunate as the spikes hit every part of her body that wasn't protected by her shield. Although her red Aura has prevented her from getting skewered, the spikes shoved Pyrrha away, which allowed the Thorus to come back down and balance itself on all four of its legs again.

Now in full berserk mode, the Thorus charged forward and slammed one of its horns into Pyrrha's body. The force broke through Pyrrha's weakened Aura, which allowed the horn to impale through her shoulder. While Pyrrha tried to free herself from the horn, the Thorus kept charging until it ran and smashed into a nearby building.

The horn went deeper into Pyrrha from the impact, making the wound seem like her entire arm was going to get ripped off. When the Thorus took a step back away from the building, Pyrrha's limp body slid off of the bloody horn and landed on the ground, lacking any sign of life.

"Pyrrha,get up! You need to get up!"

Jaune watched the apparent demise of his partner in horror. When Pyrrha didn't give any kind of response to his voice, Jaune felt his anger surface as he now glared at the Grimm who turned to return the gaze.

"_It's my fault…it's all my fault; I should have seen this coming. Darn it….Pyrrha… ….darn it, she was supposed to be safe, not me!"_

A blazing white light filled Jaune's mind as he ran forward with his body now fueled by his anger. The Thorus seemed to take this as a challenge as it lowered its head and made its own charge towards the blonde warrior. Right as both combatants collided with each other, Jaune rolled out of the way just before the Thorus attempted to slam into Jaune with one of its horns.

"_I have to finish this! The sword is still there, so I can still finish this fight!"_

The Thorus tried to mash its teeth into Jaune again, but Jaune saw something shining on the ground and instinctively picked it up and shoved it into the Thorus's mouth. Jaune saw that he placed in Nora's churro, which prevented the Thorus from clamping its teeth into Jaune. With this distraction, Jaune slid down under the Thorus's stomach and tried to reach for his sword.

While the Thorus tried to bite into the churro, it willed all of its spikes below itself to shoot out and slam into Jaune. Even if Jaune's armored body blocked some of the spikes, it couldn't protect him from all of the ones that pierced through his weakened Aura and into his unprotected areas.

Jaune kept moving forward, not caring that the spikes were piercing further into his body. Reaching for his sword, Jaune grasped the blade's handle and tried to push his hand up to shove the sword in. Despite making little progress, Jaune kept going as he wasn't willing to let the sacrifice of his teammates end in failure.

"Rrrrraaaauuuugggghhhh!"

Suddenly, a golden light came from the blade and through the top of the Thorus, an immense energy beam burst from that side. The Thorus bellowed as this happened and tried to run away from the pain. However, the toll from Ren and Nora's attack took place as its legs gave in with its body falling on top of Jaune. Jaune's Aura intensified at that moment and extended upwards to push the falling body away.

The Thorus fell over to the side and laid still, dead from succumbing to the immense attack. Jaune, on the other hand, slowly got up as his wounds were healed by his shining Aura. Looking down at his blade, Jaune was still surprised that the attack from earlier happened by his hands.

"_What was that? How did I do that? Man, I don't think anyone can believe what just happened, especially if the team saw this. Oh no, Pyrrha!"_

Jaune suddenly remembered Pyrrha's condition and ran over to where he last saw her. When he arrived at the location, he saw Ren and Nora standing beside the fallen warrior, who was glowing in a blue light. Walking forward to take a closer look, Jaune saw that the wound around Pyrrha's shoulder was slowly, but surely, closing up.

"H-how, Ren, did you-."

"It's not me Jaune. If you noticed the color, then it's obvious who's responsible for doing this," said Ren as he backed away and motioned for Jaune to do something.

"_Aura is the manifestation of our souls. It bears our burdens and shields our hearts."_

Remembering Pyrrha's words, and the first lesson of the many she gave him, Jaune kneeled down next to Pyrrha's body. He placed both of his hands over Pyrrha's wound and watched in surprise as the blue light now surrounded the both of them while glowing at a greater intensity.

"_The light was from me? How did I even do it when I wasn't anywhere near her before?"_

This act seemed to wake Pyrrha as her eyes slowly opened. Looking at Jaune, Pyrrha smiled as she softly said, "All according to plan, right leader?"

Jaune shook his head as he said, "It was all luck. The only part that seemed to go through was my trust in all of you. I knew that we could do it, one way or another."

Pyrrha nodded her head in one direction and said, "I'm not sure if that's the only thing that worked. Take a look down there."

Looking down at her bracelet, Jaune saw the two gold coins that he gave her were glowing in the same blue light. When he remembered that he was the original holder of the coins, he asked "Did I do that?"

Pyrrha nodded slowly raised one hand in the air while saying, "You always seem to know what's best for me. I'm glad that I kept them as a good luck charm, otherwise, I would probably have had to use them for their original purpose."

Taking the hand with one of his own, Jaune said, "I'm glad to see that they were helpful this way. It would have been terrible losing you in a fight like this."

As Jaune kept his closed hand around Pyrrha's own, Nora stood next to Ren and whispered, "So are we not going to talk about what happened? Jaune just did something amazing right there."

Shaking his head, Ren said, "Let's just leave them alone for now. We'll talk about this at a better time."

Ren turned to walk away and leave his teammates alone with each other. Nora followed his lead and said,"Alrighty Ren, ohh, and before I forget."

Nora picked up the churro that the Thorus dropped and said, "Hear ye, hear ye, for all who had born witness to this brave churro's act, I now shall guide this churro into the great hall, the place also known as the shelf full of my souvenirs!"

Ren smiled from seeing this, happy to see his partner smiling again and at peace with her 'enemy.' Looking back at Jaune and Pyrrha, Ren thought, "_Well, we'll come back after we report this to Beacon and get an airjet to pick you two up. Until then, I hope you remember your lessons today Jaune. You've gained a lot in a few months; imagine who you'll turn out as in a few years."_

As Nora and Ren walked away, Professor Port was seen standing beside the smoking remains of the Thorus. Putting down his weapon, the professor said, "Monster 4, I barely knew ye. It's a shame for you were one of my numbered test subjects."

Although he sounded sad, Professor Port didn't look too sad, especially when he joyfully said, "Oh well, I barely knew the first three as well. It's time I go and collect Monster 5. Now where is my hoe; I know that there's a Molch to be found in the underground caverns somewhere."

**When progress is made, one should not focus on merely reaching the goal. **

**The journey is also important, because the smallest steps also contribute to the making of the result.**

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A/N: Two chapters down, and one to go; sorry for releasing this chapter late. I'm not going to release the last one right away because I want to work on the last chapter well enough to make it end this first series with a good note. Also, I'm getting really tired of giving myself several days to work on two chapters, and doing it a second time after the Christmas ones is just making me overall nacreous from the work.

Besides, it's a new year, so it's plenty of enough excuse to let the third chapter out whenever I want before January ends…right?

Also, I hope that nobody minds if I made Ren like the Zen master in this chapter. He gave me the impression that he's the silent and wise kind of character who can step up to this role. Also, Nora might have been a bit OOC as well since we have never seen her have a serious discussion with any character thus far.

References:

-Jaune's costume is actually my attempt at describing the armor that the Saber of Fate Prototype and the Fate Stay Night series wear, which looks awesome. That's why I had the characters in the story give some good feedback on it. If you don't know what I'm talking about, Google it and let me know if you can see Jaune wearing awesome clothes like that on himself. Oh, and Jaune meant to say Excalibur and Avalon, and yes, they're the weapons of King Arthur.

-Pyrrha's costume, really the peplos that she was wearing, is all Greek stuff that I looked up on the internet. Maybe the only thing Greek was the peplos, hmmm.

-Nora's costume is based off of a combination between Lenne from Valkyrie Profile and Marvel's Thor. I thought it would be somewhat appropriate since both characters are related to Nora in some way.

-Ren's costume was inspired by the artwork of Li Shuwen from the Fate/Extra games. I just wanted to give a different variation of his clothing, and if it helps, I also disclaim the artwork if the descriptions make Ren seem exactly like the original inspiration.

-Professor Port Dialogue: All of the stuff, like Monster 4 and the hoe, is inspired by what Ryan Haywood says during the Let's Plays, especially in the Minecraft ones. Which means Monster 4 is…

Well, here's another short. It might explain more on what happened earlier.

* * *

"C'mon, c'mon, here she comes!"

Spray painting a small cylindrical piece of metal in a brown color and sprinkling sugar over it, Cardin gave the 'churro' to Russell, who grabbed it and ran to the owner of the churro stand. Stifling his laughter, Russell came back over next to the gang in their hiding spot after he gave the churro as planned.

Looking at Cardin, Dove asked, "So that thing is harder than steel?! How did you even get something like that?!"

Cardin smiled as he saw Nora take the churro and replied, "When you have parents like mine, you'll see that they'll give you anything as long as you stay as a student in this academy. It sure beats having to do anything myself."

Lark was trying to stifle his laughter beside Russell as he asked, "Dude, do you think she's going to fall for it? I'm sure that even an airhead like her would figure out what it is."

Cardin scoffed as he heard this and said, "I paid the guy lien to sell her the stupid thing. He's probably giving her some bull crap about some non-existent value that it has, so it'll take some time and maybe a few broken teeth by the time she figures it out."

When they saw Nora walk away and struggling with the churro, the entire team ended up laughing as they saw that their mischievous deed was a success. Walking away, Cardin said, "Alright guys, let's blow this joint. We've got some trouble to create for the other dorks. I saw that monkey one, Soon or whatever, hanging out with Velvet. He's definitely someone who's been asking for a lesson."

"Uh, who's Velvet?"

The question seemed to make Cardin angry as he glared at Russell and lashed out with, "She's the one with the bunny ears. You know, the one who we're always bullying! Pay more attention or you're going to embarrass me if anybody hears something like that!"

Russell winced as he noticed that his leader seemed to unnecessarily snap at him for such a silly mistake. Strangely, this wasn't the first time ever since he got the sweater from Velvet at the Christmas party. He's even wearing it now along with a regular pair of brown jeans, which was probably his theme-related attire for the New Year's festival.

Hoping that the present hasn't been affecting his leader, Russell followed the team to look for their targets. Thirty minutes later after walking aimlessly around the festival, they didn't find them and finally stopped nearby a group of cages.

"Well, this blows. Aside from not finding those Faunus freaks, we couldn't find anything else to do for the past while. Let's just go back to Beacon. I don't want to waste time at this cheap knock-off of the Vytal festival anymore."

Right as Cardin said this, Dove was looking at one of the cages next to them. When he noticed that one of the cages was open, he asked, "Whoa, what is this?"

The other team members turned to also see dark inside of the cage. When they heard some soft noises, Cardin said, "Well, here's something interesting. I think we just stumbled onto one of Professor Port's pets. Let's see if we can use this to start a little ruckus."

Carding took out his mace and started to wail it against the side of the cage. While Dove and Lark cheered him on, Russell nervously said, "Uh, Cardin? That doesn't seem like a good idea. What if the professor sees us doing this?"

As he continued his assault, Cardin asked, "Oh, c'mon, what's the worst that can happen?"

Right as he slammed his mace into the side again, a loud roar echoed from the cage. The noise scared the group of young warriors as they backed away when they saw a large snout come into the light.

The last thing that Team CRDL saw that day was a pair of red eyes coming from the face of the huge Grimm. From the large snout came out hot air, signaling the start of its rampage after it awoke from its slumber.

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A/N: Have a good one everybody and I'll have something up before the end of January. (I hope)


End file.
